


I Owe It To Myself

by Tsuji



Category: Lenin - The Lion
Genre: Depression, Gen, MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE GAME’S SECRET ENDING, Rating may go up as the story goes, coming of age story, idk how to use tags lol, oh right
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-02-17 23:40:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 50,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21518344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsuji/pseuds/Tsuji
Summary: After overcoming Panic, Drowsiness, Anxiety and Hopelessness, Lenin’s most difficult battle yet still looms in the horizon. How is it going to reflect on Lenin and his allies from the real world and the Depression Realm both?
Relationships: Lenin & Everyone
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	1. Invocation

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfiction is my own reimagining of the secret final boss fight of the game, and everything that leads up to and comes from it. All credit for Lenin - The Lion, its setting and characters go to its creator Lornyon and the crew who worked in the game with him.
> 
> I urge everyone who reads this to go and play the game, it’s a beautiful experience which you won’t regret!

“Lenin?”

The albino lion looked up from the sealed letter in his hands at the call. Bertram stood before him in front of the stairs leading to the Sky Ship, his tattered black suit still peppered with sand even in the peaceful oasis. 

“Is something the matter? You seem a little out of it”, the vulture pointed out, concern visible in his beady eyes.

Lenin looked down again in reflection. Yes, he was out of it. His head was spinning, but not with quite the same kind of anxiety he was used to feel for so long, when enduring the mean looks and words from his peers, or facing the prospect of failing at something that was expected of him, his entire life. 

He was anxious, true, but underneath it there was... something else he couldn’t quite name yet.

The Bird Stone from the Oasis had just told him to go receive a quest from the pyramid’s seer - the same one that had given him the hints he needed to find Hopeless Island and stand a chance fighting against Horace. And yet, something about the way it talked about it made him feel that it could be the most important thing he’d do in his entire life. Even compared to his latest misadventures. 

Especially compared to those, since the Stone seemed to consider them a _prerequisite_ for this.

Lenin finally looked back at Bertram, his eyes mirroring the vulture’s concern. “Yeah, it’s... kind of a big deal. It might just change... _everything_ , you know?”

Bertram’s eyes widened at that statement. “Huh. What kind of ‘everything’ we’re talking about here?”

Lenin shook his head. “We should go back to the pyramid. I guess we’ll find out what this is all about when we go there.”

The captain of the Sky Ship was clearly curious to hear more, but kept his own questions to himself, and flew back to the ship, preparing it to travel over the seemingly endless desert once more.

As he climbed back up in the ship himself, Lenin chanced a last look back at the oasis - the flamingo, once an enemy, seemed to have taken no interest in the current happenings, or in anything else besides his own business... meanwhile, the hippo who lived there gave a knowing look and an easy smile back at the lion from his lounger, as if somehow he knew everything would turn out alright in the end.

Lenin could only wish he had that same confidence. 

.........................................................

Not long after, the Sky Ship had taken flight, leaving the oasis and its residents far behind. Reaching the pyramid where the seer lived would take a while, giving the albino lion plenty of time to think it over by himself while he rested at Bertram’s bedroom and the vulture took over the helm for a change.

He looked quite surprised when Lenin explained about the letter of recommendation. Apparently even Horace could have been after the document he now fiddled with in his hands in the past, and that fact alone gave all the more weight to it - and the quest ahead of him that came with it.

It was enough to make Lenin shake in his boots again.

It wasn’t like he thought of himself a total failure anymore. In the span of a single day, he had surpassed himself over and over again, more than he’d ever thought possible, through all the cowardice and the dread that he’d just make things worse for everyone if he dared to try... and at the end of the day (which had felt much longer and much more intense than any other day in his life as far as he could remember) not only he managed to go to school and do fairly well at it after weeks of isolating himself at home, but he was also roped into helping save fantastic land after fantastic land... 

And to acknowledge that things did work out when he tried, as his music teacher would put it, made his heart feel warmer than it had in a long while, Lenin thought with a smile, looking back at all the friends he made along the way, both those at school and those he made in these fantastic lands... Or should he call them his “imaginary friends”?

Lenin wasn’t a _total idiot_ , no matter how much he used to think himself a fool for even trying to live on with the weight of the world on his shoulders - and part of him still did, if he was honest with himself. After seeing how so many people in those foreign places, his biggest allies there most of all, reminded him of people in his daily life, a la “The Wizard of Oz”... the way that his own state of mind seemed to change accordingly with every decision he made for better or worse in those worlds... and especially how his presence always ended up being so crucial to change the state of things like he was the protagonist of some video game... thinking about all that, it wasn’t so hard to conclude that everything out of the ordinary he had experienced so far could well all be reflections of his very own mind.

Lenin stood up and walked out of Bertram’s bedroom, looking over the ship’s railing at the seemingly endless dunes in the horizon. Even as the same old fears and doubts gripped at his heart, he wanted to be able to drag them along with him and move forward.

He had no idea of what would come from it. But he knew by now that, whatever he was up to in that strange world, it certainly influenced his own mind, his perspective on things... his very self. And if there was any chance for him to get so much as one step closer to... healing... after everything, didn’t he owe it to himself to reach out for it?

........................................

“ _May this realm find the peace it so deserves..._ ”

If Lenin’s head was spinning before, his mind was positively reeling now. With one of the Triad Sphere fragments safe in his backpack, he left the pyramid where the bird Seer lived.

“And...?” Bertram stood by the Sky Ship’s stairs as always, while Lenin went to talk to the Seer in the pyramid. Sometimes, he thought, the vulture seemed almost as much of a busybody as the flamingos they once had to avoid... but the boy could hardly blame the older man, in light of his long isolation. And he was never as malicious as them either...

“Long story... let’s get out of here, too much sand...”

The wind in those parts was definitely stronger than it was back in the oasis, constantly spilling sand all over Lenin’s fur and Bertram’s feathers and suit, so the two navigators of the Sky Ship wasted no time in taking it high enough that the sand stopped bothering them. 

After that, Bertram set the ship to autopilot and they could finally discuss things properly. Somehow, Lenin never felt too uncomfortable standing on the ship’s deck mid-flight, despite the blazing sun above and the air blowing all around the ship as it flew through the skies, and those never got in the way of a conversation either... another point supporting his “imagination world” theory, as he took it.

“Lenin?” Bertram’s gentle call yanked him back to the present. 

Lenin looked at him, and gulped. Deep down, he knew he was procrastinating. He wanted to open up about it, he really did... but the prospect of talking about this particular subject matter still made him nervous.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to...”

Yeah. He knew... he could take the easy way out of this, drop the subject entirely until he was ready...

_“Don’t waste any more time!”_

But _when_ exactly would he be ready, then? 

What had he ever gained by running away from his fears and from things that made him uncomfortable? Isolation that gave his peers all the more reasons to see him as a weirdo? False peace that only really ever sucked any and all happiness out of his life? Sadness and despair that made him want to... to...?

No. He didn’t want any more of that, ever again.

He focused on Bertram again, the vulture’s eyes looking expectant. It wasn’t going to be easy, and he knew he couldn’t be too reckless about it either... but if he wanted to break out of the shell he built for himself over time, it was going to take exactly those kinds of leaps of faith.

Just like he trusted Magnolia, Harriet and Rudolf, Amir, Liane and Iz, and Bertram, and overcame all those evils with their help... he would trust Bertram again with this.

“I’m going to meet up with the Sovereign Triad.”

Bertram didn’t seem to understand what that was all about. So Lenin gave him a brief explanation of what he knew: who the Sovereign Triad was in the hierarchy of the entire realm, how their central entity, Igzoc, went insane and became directly responsible for everything that went awry in every corner of the world, including being behind Horace’s machinations all along, and how it was up to Lenin to restore order to the Triad and, by extension, to the entirety of the realm.

“ _Blimey_...”, was Bertram’s reply after listening attentively to Lenin’s resume. “That’s some responsibility that has fallen on your lap, boy...”

“Tell me about it...”

“And I thought my problems with the oil company and the Peacock Master were a huge deal... To think all that was still just a part of something even _bigger_!” Bertram seemed to wipe some sweat... from under his feathers? “And now, you’re going to go right down to the lions’ den there?”

That warranted a chuckle from the albino lion at least, though it quickly faded...

“I don’t know... if I’m up to it.”

Bertram’s face fell at the pronouncement. And then Lenin’s head sagged down again. For a moment, the only sounds that could be heard were the ever-present hum of the Ship’s motor and the wind blasting all around them.

For years he had struggled with that ruthless disease called depression. To think the path to overcome it could finally be at hand... part of him was scared that he was deluding himself into looking for the easy way out again, and there was no such thing as “a cure for depression”. But now, there was this “quest”, with a crazed entity that _had_ to be stronger than anything he’d faced so far waiting at the end of it, and the promise of overcoming his long-time ailment through it all... it was as tempting as it was _terrifying_.

Part of the boy still wished the wind could whisk him away... away from all the danger, the pain and the suffering he faced...

But suddenly, he felt a feathered hand on his shoulder.

He looked up, and Bertram was right in front of him. Smiling at him. Lenin hadn’t noticed the vulture approaching him, but just by his gesture, some of the weight on his head and chest seemed to be lifted off.

“I understand your feelings... I used to feel that way all the time, you know?”

Lenin’s eyes widened at him. He hadn’t really expected the vulture to bring up the words he had told him in the Blue Cave, not so long ago, right at that moment.

“I used to think that I was an ugly thing, doomed to live a pathetic life under the rule of the Peacock Master and the disdain of his flamingoes, and that no one would ever understand me... but then-“ Bertram tapped a feather finger at the lion’s chest fluff. “You came, you defied the Peacock Master’s rules to help me, and you helped me find the courage to defy him as well, and look what we managed to do together! We kicked the Peacock Master’s gorgeous butt, put an end to his tyranny, saved the Great Whale and reclaimed the Amour Propre company!”

Lenin found himself chuckling again with Bertram’s over-the-top voice inflections and hand gestures whenever he enumerated their feats... and he had to admit: Bertram was right. With some confidence, they’d come a long way. He, too, had come a long way, in all of those worlds and back at home...

“Lenin, you’re already a hero just for everything I saw you do... and it also convinces me that the rumors about the things you did out there are true too. And I’m also pretty sure the Seer wouldn’t have asked that of you if she didn’t think you were up to it, right?”

Lenin fell back into a soft smile. “I suppose you’re right...”

“So I believe you should go”, Bertram pronounced with confidence, clutching his hand feathers in front of his chest. “Go, and save the entire realm! I’m sure you can do it!”

Lenin’s smile grew larger - even the world around him seemed to have become a little bit brighter - and he felt much more confident then.

It really was like Jackson had told him: Never judge a book by its cover... Bertram took it a step further and made himself into an example of it. Who’d have expected that the vulture, once as much of a defeatist as himself, would be helping boost his self-esteem like that now...

And then the realization hit him. The boy gave the owner of Amour Propre a knowing look.

“Your first customer, eh?”

The vulture actually chuckled, then gave back a sly expression mirroring the lion’s. “Amour Propre’s new self-esteem delivery business is _no joke_ , I’ll have you know!”

It was then that Lenin surprised even himself, going up to Bertram and giving him a hug, which clearly had the vulture tense up.

“Lenin...?“

The lion rested his head on the vulture’s shoulder. “Thank you... for everything.”

Bertram said nothing, he just slowly relaxed and returned the hug as his initial shock passed. Thinking about it, it was a spur of the moment decision, but it felt... fitting. Regardless of whether he won or lost the fight against Igzoc, he didn’t know if he’d be seeing Bertram again after everything was over - or the other people of the realm, for that matter. And it didn’t matter to him how “real” they were, in the strictest sense of the word... they were all dear to him, and that was what he thought mattered the most.

Moments later, they broke off the hug. 

“I’m off, then”, Lenin declared, finally.

Bertram smiled at him. “Do your best, boy!”

As he walked back to the dark sphere that transported him across worlds and lands, he looked back at the old, rusty ship with all those boxes lying around, the ropes and floaters hung up on the railing and by Bertram’s bedroom and the endless cloudless sky stretched out above them... and finally back to Bertram himself, who still smiled at him encouragingly.

Lenin nodded with confidence.

And then, as he touched the sphere and the Self-Sabotage Desert faded away from his view, giving place to the usual swirl of black and purple that existed in-between the lands as he warped to where the next Sphere fragment was, he realized another thing... 

What he had felt before, under all the fear... was anticipation. An ever-so-slight thrill that he might actually have the chance to solve his own issues once and for all.

He smiled. His fear, if he thought about it that way, could serve as a reminder to not be fooled by false promises, like Zurergo said. But now, he would also take a chance to be brave and walk down what seemed to be the right path...

...........................................................

Moments after Lenin had disappeared into the sphere, Bertram still looked at it with a warm smile on his beak.

“I know you can win, Lenin... I believe in you.”

The vulture felt a slight twinge in his chest. The Sky Ship, he had noticed lately, now felt a little lonely when Lenin was not there. To think loneliness would have that effect on him once again, right when he thought himself completely numb to it...

But it hadn’t taken him too long to realize that it probably was for the best. It meant that he had things worth living for again. There was someone he cared about and who cared about him, someone he looked forward to meeting again whenever they parted ways...

Until that moment came, the vulture decided as he turned back to steer the Ship’s helm, he would do his best as well. So that he could look at him in the eye and meet him with a smile when the time came. 

Time to go look for more customers, then!


	2. Preparation

_“May your willpower restore balance to this world...”_

Having given out her fragment of the sphere and her piece of advice, the panda Seer was now sitting on her couch by the trees, leisurely reading one of her many books with her back turned to them, while Iz and Lenin reconvened closer to the entrance, for the sake of her privacy as much as their own.

“So, I take it that this ‘Igzoc’...”, Iz began. Lenin didn’t have to relay everything to Iz like he had to with Bertram, the bull cook was within earshot when the Seer explained everything to him and didn’t hide that he was listening in at all, but the lion still had to fill him in with the context. “...is the one responsible for corrupting Amir and Liane?”

Lenin nodded. 

“Huh... that’s quite a bit to take in, Lenin.” The bull huffed again. “And you... you’re really going to face him now, aren’t you?”

The boy felt a chill down his spine. Nonetheless, he nodded again. “I won’t hide it from you, Iz, I’m _scared_... But I want to make sure no more problems like the fire in the Mansion will happen, ever again.”

“And you’re convinced that this is the best way to make sure, aren’t you?”

“Mm-hm!”

The cook took a deep breath through the nose, and put aside the tray he always carried with him on one of the hall’s tables. Then he kneeled down and placed both hands on Lenin‘s shoulders. “Then have courage, and go for it! You survived the fire and electricity problems in this mansion and saved us all! You can do it!”

Lenin smiled again. “Yeah!”

And then Iz hugged him. Lenin took the opportunity to hug him back, as he would have done if the cook hadn’t done it first. Real or not, he came to care deeply for the Mansion too, and everyone he’d come across in it.

Lenin broke off the hug first. Then, he took a long look at the Mansion - possibly his last look at it. He took in everything about it that he could, every hue of brown and yellow on the walls, every piece of furniture and adornment, the two people present in the main hall...

(He wished Amir and Liane were there with them...)

He briefly thought back to the panther and his daughter who he met earlier, as well as Ibi, the gardener, who he hadn’t seen since the other two had left their cottage... they’d all left, like so many of the Mansion’s former residents. Lenin hoped they were all doing well, wherever they were... like the crow who still lived in the mansion and his art, they were always meant to be free to stay or go as they pleased.

He also thought back to the painting in the Mansion, hidden deep inside the Human Gallery, portraying the secret of his true form... and bore it in mind as something to protect too. 

And finally, after a long moment, he turned to face Iz again.

“I’ve got to go.”

The bull’s eyes seemed to shine. “I know.”

The albino lion walked to the warping sphere, ready to go to his next destination. He was about to touch it to leave... when Iz called out to him.

“And Lenin?”

He looked back to the cook.

“I’m very proud of you. Remember that.”

Lenin felt his face flush as he smiled. He nodded back at Iz.

Then he waved him goodbye, and touched the sphere to leave the Mansion, possibly for good...

..........................................

The tears the old cook had managed to hold back until Lenin had left were now flowing freely down his face.

“Bless my heart, I’m too old for this.”, Iz muttered to himself while he wiped some of the tears...

“There’s no such thing as ‘too old for emotions’, dear!”, the Seer’s voice chimed in all the way back from her chair, and when he turned to look at it, she already had it facing his direction, an amused expression on her black and white face.

“I’m confident that the boy will be just fine!”, the crow resident added, very nearly scaring Iz to death, since the bull hadn’t noticed his presence in the corridor up until then. Meanwhile, all the Seer did was chuckle at his reaction.

“Oh, give me a break!” Iz clutched his own chest as he fought to catch his breath, scowling at the crow and the panda as they exchanged knowing looks, as if wordlessly sharing a secret just between the two of them. “You two and your mysterious antics... I just said I’m too old, are you trying to kill me faster? Holy Mother of...”

...................................

_“May the Sovereign Triad be re-established by your perception...”_

“Lenin?”

The boy turned back. Across the verdant fields and the constant rain of pink leaves, Lenin could see Harriet, followed closely by her right-hand sheep Rudolf, and her mother and former queen, Sapphire. In no time at all, the former princess and leader of the Sheep Revolution and her entourage reached him. 

“So you’re off? To another battle?” 

Lenin sighed. He was going to talk to them after getting the fragment from the sheep Seer and hearing her advice - which he had just finished doing - but he really should have known that there wouldn’t even be a chance at privacy this time, what with the huge sheep Seer towering over the entirety of the Fields, and her voice being loud enough to be overheard across all of it...

Even so, neither the Seer from the Mansion nor the one from the Fields seemed to have made much of an effort to discuss Lenin’s ”great mission” with much privacy... unlike the one from the Desert, with whom he talked alone... and then opened up to Bertram about it...

He wondered, then, if the other Seers took that as a hint to let his allies give him moral support in this trying time, and flushed a little with embarrassment at the thought...

“I am”, he finally replied to Harriet. “And this one might be even harder than the Sheep Revolution.”

Harriet and Rudolf both gasped, while Sapphire merely widened her eyes at him.

“ _Holy smokes_ , Lenin! Is that for real?”

Lenin nodded as they all walked back to the tents. “It is... actually, this ‘Igzoc’ I’m about to face... he seems to be the one behind Dimitri and his schemes.”

This time, Sapphire joined the other two in gasping at the lion. And then they exchanged looks and mutters of disbelief among themselves

Rudolf was the first to address Lenin again. “And how are you feeling about all this?”

That was a pretty good question, Lenin thought. He stopped and looked at Rudolf for a moment, and then at Harriet and Sapphire...

“It’s okay to accept a little help every now and then. It doesn’t make you less or worse than anyone else.”

The lion snorted a bit at the thought of the bat who offered to help him with the broken bridge at the Bipolar Woods. He really shouldn’t be so ashamed to accept some help from his friends, right? Even though he’d made quite a bit of progress on that, especially during the past day, it seemed that he still had much to learn in that area...

He shook his head at them. “I’m fine... pretty scared, to be honest, but... I think I’ll do fine.” He tentatively raised both hands and clenched them into fists. “I’ve come this far already... and I don’t want to turn back now!”

Finally, he looked back at the three of them. “This can change everything for the better, for all of us! I have to go there and do my best!”

The others stared at him for a while. Lenin didn't blame them, his own display of courage surprised even himself! To think that he was scared of his own shadow only earlier that day...

And then, Harriet smiled at him with confidence. “Sounds like you’ve made your mind up on this, then!”

“Is it true?”

“He’s really going there? Our hero?”

“But it seems so _risky_!”

The lion and the three sheep looked over onto the fields, and were met with a small gathering of sheep, growing larger by the minute as the others went to see the commotion. Alexander, the cook, the banjo sheep, the seller sheep, some of the soldiers who fought with them in the Revolution... all there to see him, and talk to him.

It was no wonder that Lenin kind of... froze. He definitely wasn’t used to that much attention at all, and he was growing more and more anxious the more they looked at him, apparently expecting some kind of mass pronouncement from him...

Thankfully Harriet took over. 

“That’s right, everyone! Our hero and savior has a grand mission to undertake, greater than even the Sheep Revolution! A mission to ensure things like the Morpheus’ System never come to pass again in this world!”

The crowd seemed to be riled up, but still torn between excitement and worry...

And that’s when Sapphire stepped in, much to the surprise of the other three. “A very important mission, as I’m sure you all can imagine. Lenin has to go and face the one above even the Priest of Dreams, the one responsible for all of our plight, and he has to do it alone - so we ask of you, do not interfere, for it has to be!”

The crowd seemed even more worried than before now. Sapphire looked back at him and Harriet apologetically. Not that he blamed her - he knew she had done her best...

“Uh... Worry not, people!”, Harriet shouted at the crowd again for attention. “Lenin fought hard and prepared himself as best as possible for what’s to come. And we’re sure he will come out victorious, the same way he brought us all to victory!”

It seemed to work well enough - the crowd sounded more assured now. “He will go now, he will fight, and he will win! FOR THIS WORLD!!!”

The sheep echoed Harriet’s newly adapted battle cry, formerly used for the Sheep Revolution, until it devolved into wordless cheering.

Lenin felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned to see it was Rudolf. “Uh... you probably should go now. Before they decide to come closer to talk to you up front.”

Lenin gulped. That would be too much for him, for sure.

But before that, Harriet pulled him into a hug. “Oh, Lenin... I didn’t want to send you off like this, I’m sorry... But that’s probably for the best, you know?”

He could feel his shoulder wet at the side Harriet rested her head on. Another reason for him to go, before he teared up in front of everyone himself...

“I’m sure it is, my daughter.” Sapphire stood a few feet from them. “It’s a nice way to show Lenin we’re all behind him before he goes...”

Lenin blinked. It was, wasn’t it?

They were all there, rooting for him...

“Show him what for, Lenin! You’re the _veteran_ , don’t you forget that!”

“Show him how strong you can be, even when it seems better to just give up!”

“Show him what you learned about _équilibre_ , Lenin, and knock him off his!”

Even the sheep Seer was beaming at him in the distance, watching everything from afar as she was wont to do!

Lenin couldn’t keep himself from getting excited, it seemed to be contagious!

As he prepared to touch the warping sphere to leave for his last destination before the big fight, he looked back over the verdant fields, the pink leaves constantly falling down from the skies... and the crowd of sheep cheering for him, headed by Harriet, Rudolf and Sapphire.

Then, he offered a few words of his own. “Thank you for the support, everyone! I’ll show Igzoc what I’ve got!”

Then he raised a fist. “FOR THIS WORLD!!!”

And he was met with another round of cheering. Deep down, a part of himself was mortified at his own antics. It was so not usual for him to act like that... But, he thought with a smile at the scene before him, it just felt right. 

Harriet’s final words to him convinced even more of it. 

“Now that’s a good speech!”

He gave Harriet, Rudolf and Sapphire one last smile. And with that, he touched the sphere and left Nausea Fields for good...

...............................................

The three sheep stood by the tent Lenin used to warp away, even after most of the impromptu commitive had dispersed as the sheep went back to their own businesses. 

“Well, I’ll say...”, Harriet started, sighing as her face fell. “I held up my tough façade pretty well there, but I can’t say I’m not worried about what might happen to Lenin.”

Rudolf sighed too. “I know the feeling, but I think there’s naught we can do except to pray for his success...”

“Believing in him is important too, Rudolf... my child...” Sapphire still kept a little of her old regality when she thought it was due, like in that moment. “You trusted him to help with the Revolution, and we were all saved thanks to it, so I’m sure you can find it in you to believe in him in this personal endeavor of his... so please, let’s not speak of him as if the odds were against him.”

Harriet gaped at her mother for a moment... then she laughed, and hugged her. “Oh, I really missed it when you used to give me that kind of sage advice...”

Sapphire happily returned the hug as Rudolf watched the moment with a smile of his own.

“I missed this too... my child...”

...........................................................

“Lenin boy, it is quite good to see you again!”

Magnolia stood at the center of the village, near to her house one of her sculptures, like always (the townsfolk insisted on it, she’d told him, and the hyena didn’t strike him as someone all too willing to draw attention and acclamations to herself...). The new matriarch of Illusion Village seemed to be doing a pretty good job, nonetheless, getting the hyenas to leave their houses and form bonds with one another, and making sure the Patriarch and his rule of isolation was a thing if the past...

Even if both Lenin and Magnolia wished Phuny was still a part of their lives.

But who knew what could happen now? If Lenin faced Igzoc _and won_... maybe, just maybe... Phuny could be restored. Amir and Liane too. Even Dimitri and Horace, though those two had been nothing but mean and manipulative to him and everyone around them... if it came down to that, setting them straight would be a breeze if he only _managed_ to deal with the mastermind behind them all. 

Anyway, it was better to not get ahead of himself. Before he could even consider that, he had to defeat Igzoc first...

“Hey, Magnolia...”, the lion greeted back. This time he’d waste no time beating around the bush. Somehow, even among his greatest allies across that world, Magnolia seemed special to him. Like a second mother... 

(Or maybe a representation of his real mother.)

He’d be as straightforward as he could from the start, this time. The Seers seemed to be on board with that too. 

So he looked her firmly on the eyes when he said: “I need help with something pretty important right now... could you come with me to the Seer?”

Magnolia blinked. “Huh?”

“I’ll explain it on the way.”

....................................................

_“Victory is, undoubtedly, in your hands...”_

Lenin now had the complete Triad Sphere safely stored in his trusty backpack. All there was left to do now was go to the mysterious place it supposedly unlocked the way for, and... face his destiny.

“Lenin boy...” 

Magnolia took the truth with as much surprise as he had expected from. But when the Seer gave him her advice, she looked aghast. 

Of course, explaining everything to the hyena on the way didn’t really work out in regards to keeping the matter private either - the former village guard and Jonas both seemed curious to hear what their “hero” and their Matriarch were discussing together, and when the Seer assembled the Triad Sphere for Lenin, the light show that ensued had drawn the attention of the rest of the village, including Gott and his artist colleague, and the possessive siblings (who seemed to be in much better terms now, Lenin was glad to see).

But at this point, not only was he already expecting it, but he was even welcoming it. Every bit of support encouraged him more...

“Wow... and I used to think you _needed more drama_ in your life, boy...” was all Gott could say. 

Jonas was the first villager to offer his own advice. “I’m sure it will all be fine, Lenin! You took down the Patriarch and brought back the pure rain and the greenery to the Village and the Woods! I’m sure you’ll find a way...”

The others seemed to be in full agreement, each one wanting to pitch in with their own ideas...

But suddenly, the lion couldn’t pay attention to anyone else. He heard a sharp gasp, and when he turned to see, Magnolia seemed to hunch her shoulders... and had even started trembling a bit.

“Magnolia...?”

When she looked back at him, he saw her eyes welling up with tears. “I’m... worried, Lenin... so worried... ‘Igzoc’, the ‘Triad’... it all seems so very dangerous! I... I know you’ve faced a lot of things around this world, and I’m so _glad_ to know you’ve overcome it all, but this... feels like so much more than all that!”

She wiped some of her tears away, but to no avail. The townsfolk seemed concerned to see their matriarch lose her composure like that.

She looked away from him again. “I know you have to go and face it anyway, it’s just that... I’m afraid for you, and then I... I’ve already lost Phuny, and it hurts _so much_... And Igzoc...”

“ _He was the one who corrupted Phuny beyond salvation!_ ” Magnolia clenched her hands. Everyone else had taken a step back, and even Lenin was terrified at his friend’s mood swing and the ominous edge her words now had. 

“Magnolia...” He had to say something. _Anything_. Having her give in to anger surely could never lead to anything good...

But then, the Matriarch seemed to deflate of her own accord, her shoulders sagging as her anger apparently dissipated back into sadness with a sharp exhale. 

“He was such a good boy...” Her voice sounded heavier than he’d ever heard. “Just like you... and then he made one mistake, which led to another, and another... until he ended up _dead_.”

The distraught hyena was sobbing now. “I just... can’t stand the _thought_ of losing you too...”

“Oh...” Lenin’s heart caught in his throat. He already had his suspicions about it, but now it was more than clear that the umbrella maker he’d met at what now felt like an eternity ago harbored similar feelings for him. And of course, she still had those cracks fresh in her heart from Phuny’s madness and demise, making everything that much more complicated...

But there was no better way.

“Magnolia...” The lion stretched out both hands to the taller hyena, beckoning her for a hug. He’d already given out hugs that day like it was National “Hug A Lion” Day, and now they both needed this one more hug. 

When the hyena looked back to him, he called for her. “Come here...”

The Matriarch wasted no time in kneeling down and pulling the boy into her arms. Sobbing uncontrollably, she stayed there for a few moments, and Lenin couldn’t help crying a bit himself - it just broke his heart to see his mother, or a mother figure, cry. The villagers looked on solemnly, none of them daring to break the moment, for which he would be eternally grateful... 

But even so, they couldn’t stand there forever.

“Magnolia...”, the boy started gently. “You know I need to do this... You said it yourself!”

Magnolia didn’t respond.

“I can see how much it hurts...” He rubbed her back gently. “ _But this is exactly why I have to go_... To make sure those tragedies will never happen again! You know that...”

“Yeah...” She pulled back at last, and faced him again. “I know... I really do! It’s not only for the sake of this village, but of the entire world, I know... But it doesn’t mean I like to see you heading into mortal danger, even so.”

She wiped more tears from her eyes. “It’s a mother’s thing, you know? We always want our kids happy and safe from any pain... but if the whole problem with the Patriarch taught us something, it was that nothing good comes out of shutting ourselves or our loved ones away from the world...”

Lenin smiled at her. “We can’t feel love without fear...”

Magnolia chuckled at him parroting her own words from the past at her. “Yes, that’s right... and we can’t realize our love without facing our fear properly.”

The Matriarch finally stood up again, her composure apparently recovered just well enough, and took his hand into hers. “Now its time for you to go and face yours. Hang on to that bravery within you, and don’t doubt yourself ever again!”

The townsfolk around them showed their agreement with that sentiment.

Gott smiled down at him. “I’m sure you’ll find completeness down that path, boy.”

The siblings stepped in to Magnolia’s aid as well. “Don’t worry, our Matriarch! Lenin reached out to us, I’m sure he’ll get through to that bastard too!”

The brother snorted at his sister’s callousness. “That’s right, sis! He can do it, for sure!”

Lenin’s smile widened at them all. “Leave it to me!”

The group started cheering. It wasn’t as big a commotion as with the sheep, since there weren’t anywhere as many hyenas in the Village as there were sheep in the Fields... but what mattered was that they were all there. All of the precious friends he’d made there went with him to see him off...

Suddenly, something at the corner of his eye caught his attention. 

When he looked, he saw Zurergo looking on into the scene from under the trees on the outskirts of the village, for all of two seconds before he disappeared in the blink of an eye...

Lenin smiled again. He knew what he had to do. 

“It’s time, Lenin...” Magnolia knew it too. They both had to be strong.

He looked her in the eyes again, taking in the motherly love emanating from him. 

“Yeah...”

And so Lenin and Magnolia went, hand in hand for mutual support, towards the warping sphere that would take him to the final showdown with Igzoc, in which his fate and that of the entire realm would be decided. 

However, as he crossed the space between worlds, Lenin decided to not head toward the newly opened path into the unknown just yet. After that moment he shared with Magnolia, he noticed there was one more thing he should take a little time to do before coming for Igzoc...

.................................................................

The Matriarch of Illusion Village looked at the spot she had last seen him before he had left. She missed him so much already... She could only hope it wouldn’t be forever, like with Phuny...

“Come back to us safely, Lenin boy... Please!”

..................................................................

Unlike the other places he went to, which seemed to exist in perpetual daytime no matter how much time passed (or maybe _didn’t_ ), Samiga Village was asleep, covered by the dark of the night. Only the night guard stood outside by the fence, all the other residents most likely in deep sleep by then - it was almost morning, from what the clock in his house showed. 

In their bedroom, Lenin found his mother sleeping too, though not entirely peacefully, judging by her concerned expression. The boy’s eyes shone in the dim nightlight at the sight of her... He always knew his mother loved him, despite their disagreements, but now he felt he understood her love better than he ever did...

Maybe after today she would have one less worry in her life.

He kneeled down onto her bedside, and laced his fingers as if offering a prayer to the one who had brought him to the world, and stood by his side when no one else had.

It felt a little weird, but also somewhat fitting.

“If I don’t manage to come back after this, I just want you to know... I love you. And I’m very glad that you stayed with me until today, even though you didn’t always like it... even though it _hurt_ you sometimes...”

He could feel the tears welling up in his eyes again... there had been so much crying in his past. How many times had he sit down on that very spot and cried alone in the dark, with no way out of his personal hell that he could see... 

But now, the tears felt right, like they hadn’t in a long while. So he would offer those to her too.

“I’m not running away anymore, Mom. I’m going to face everything - my fears, my grudges, my flaws... and it’s almost scaring me out of my mind. My greatest hope right now is that, when the sun rises today, I’ll get to see you again, and all of my new friends too...”

He was laughing through the tears now. “I _can’t wait_ to introduce Edward and Jackson to you... even Harry, Antony and Leandro became friends with me... they used to bully me with Isaac, but we’re all good now, so... I don’t think I’ll have issues with being bullied anymore!” Well, there was still Isaac himself... but dealing with one bully alone would be much easier than dealing with four of them, especially as he was now.

“There are others too... one guy has been teaching me how to meditate! A girl at English class said she’d help me with the past assignments! Oh, _I could just keep going_...” Wasn’t it absurd, just how much his life had improved in a single day? 

Had it _really_ been a single day?

The words seemed to catch in his throat the more he spoke, but somehow he got them out. “I can’t wait to _show_ you... the song I’ll play in the musical, my painting... and to tell you everything that has happened to me today... I’m sure you won’t believe me when I tell you...”

He gulped. He could feel his tears becoming ever harder to hold back. He couldn’t prolong this much more, otherwise he’d be facing Igzoc with red eyes and one hell of a puffy face... if he even managed to bring himself there.

So he stood up, wiped his face until it wasn’t as wet anymore, and gave his sleeping mother a small kiss on the forehead. 

“This is not a farewell... okay?”, he muttered, as much to assure himself as to assure her, if she somehow was listening to him talk. He wished he had thought to leave her a note before, now there wasn’t time for it - nor was he in any condition to write anything without turning himself and the note both into wet, blubbering, unintelligible messes...

When he made to leave, a flare caught his eye, drawing his attention to the mirror. When he stood in front of it, he was surprised to see himself so mature... a veritable young man, though with emphasis on the “young” still. 

For the first time in his life, he liked what he saw on the mirror. Depression was really a horrific thing... there was nothing different in it, and yet that disease made him see himself as the ugliest thing in existence, when in truth he was as beautiful and worthy of love and respect as anyone else...

At least now he could see it for himself. And that had to be proof that he finally was on the right path.

Finally, he turned back to his sleeping mother one more time before leaving the room. 

“I’ll come back to you soon... and when I do, everything will change for the better... You’ll see!”

....................................................

Lenin walked down the road back to where the warping sphere was. His heart was at peace after going to see his mother, and it amazed him how awareness seemed to come naturally to him - so much so that he took the time to take a good look at his surroundings. 

To the east, there was the unfinished bridge, where he turned down the Bad Boy who wanted to whisk him away from the village and into a path of rage against the world, and when he left alone, he broke the roadblock on the way to reveal a path of beautiful white roses... and tough too, to withstand the guy’s car running over them. The strange creature there seemed to agree with him too; in fact, their opinions were so similar that Lenin had a good idea of who they were...

To the west, the village where he lived all his life. There were so many people that he managed to help and reach out to there too - the rich kids’ maid, the old man, the cookie girl, the young boy, the guard... And to the south, the school, with all his new friends and the teachers, who mostly showed genuine concern for him, even if they weren’t always the most tactful about it or he himself wasn’t in the right state of mind to accept them... further down south, there was the Happy House - yet another hurdle that he managed to overcome - and Serena’s clinic, Serena being the one who helped him put a name to the illness that haunted him to this day and worked with him, his mother and the school staff to help them both overcome it...

It was thanks to her too, that he arrived at where he was now.

And ahead of him, past the warping sphere, the fence and the handful of trees in front of him, there was the cliffside that traced a limit around the village and the sky above, already showing the faintest hues of blue that preceded the dawn, announced by the sound of chirping birds... and just beyond it all there was the future, forever calling for him. 

Whether he would fall or fly was entirely up to him. 

So he touched the warping sphere for the last time, and off he went toward the future...

..................................................

There would be no more excuses. 

His heart was racing. He was sweating, his legs were trembling and he had to make a conscious effort to not let them start shaking. But he had to go anyway.

Beyond the stone door that Esty materialized before him, Igzoc awaited. 

Lenin knew, from the moment he had heard about it from the Bird Stone all the way back at the oasis, that this moment would come, and that he wouldn’t allow himself to run away from it in the end. 

_“Don’t worry, oh, great hero. Everything you need is already with you.”_

After stating that loud and clear from his spot near the massive thrones, the Mecha-Deer fell silent and did not speak to him again, contenting himself to merely observe.

Esty waited for him to go and face Igzoc. To defeat him, put an end to the chaos he had sowed and would continue to sow throughout the Realm and take over his place in the throne as leader of the Sovereign Triad. 

But...

There was just one problem... some things weren’t quite coming together in his mind.

The bird Seer had said that he would restore Igzoc, not overtake him. The other Seers also seemed to alternate between telling Lenin to do one thing or the other, sometimes both at the same time!

_“Actually, you and Igzoc... Well, it’s not for me to say that to you.”_

Did it have to do... with Igzoc’s true nature? 

Was that the key to do those two very contradictory things with him at the same time?

But there was no more time to think it over. Something burning inside the white lion’s heart, that subtle inner voice that had beckoned him to help all those unknown people across the Realm and then to accept this entire quest to begin with, was almost desperate now... It screamed inside his head that he had to move forward, that he couldn’t delay his fated encounter with the source of his despair and self-hatred any longer, fearing that if he didn’t act now, he’d end up regretting having missed his chance for the rest of the misery that would be his life then. 

No, there would be no running away now. 

_Never again_. 

As Lenin touched the door, and it seemed to warp him straight to Igzoc instead of opening up, he prayed that things would make sense enough to him that he would be able to overcome any sort of aggression and misdirection.

In the end, all he could do was to do his best and hope...

.............................................................

Across several households, quite distant from one another, five boys and a grown woman slept soundly while dawn began to break, still unaware of the challenge the white lion they all knew was about to face, and the roles they were going to play in it...


	3. Confrontation

_“The false king who sits on the throne will try to exhaust your hope. Don’t let it freeze your heart.”_

_“The one who burns your deepest wounds will try to turn you to ashes.”_

_“Your great enemy notices your movements and will try to make you succumb. Don’t allow it to overwhelm you.”_

_“You must face your greatest fear and protect yourself from it. Don’t let its claws of terror corrupt your soul.”_

He had made sure to listen to every bit of advice he was given - especially those coming from the Seers, who knew best about what he was going up against. Anything that would help him prepare for it, he took...

But _none of it_ had quite managed to prepare Lenin for _this_. 

“You?”

The other boy turned back to face him, and any doubts he still had vanished like dew in the morning when he took a look at the lion clad in blue regarding him with that disdainful look he knew so well...

_It was Isaac._

“You’re here...” 

Isaac shook his head. “Those _idiots_... I gave them _one simple job_ , and they couldn’t do even that much! How difficult could it be, to suck out all the happiness, all the will to live off of a little scaredy _freak_...” And then he smiled, sardonic and ominous.

“Ah, but in the end it doesn’t really matter...”

Lenin gritted his teeth. Isaac had never treated him with anything but contempt, and he did say earlier that day that he would only be satisfied when he had thoroughly humiliated the albino, but _this_...? 

Wait, where did he go?

“Surprised, Lenin boy?”

Out of nowhere, Isaac was right beside him, eyes fixed, toothy smile, face too close to his for comfort!

Lenin yelped, and jumped back. And Isaac responded with a satisfied, roaring laugh. Then he looked back at the albino, and his gaze seemed to pin him in place as he hunched toward him from where he stood - always the predator, ready to pounce... 

“I know you’ve heard the story quite a lot already, so let’s cut to the chase... I am Igzoc. Your despair and self-hatred, taken form, and the true master of this world - your world!” He leaned back a bit and stretched out his arms. “My existence is just the ultimate consequence of you being the powerless, cowardly, freakish thing you are!”

Terror and fury warred with each other in a swirl of emotions within his heart. He was toying with him, like always... Isaac - or Igzoc, as it may - wasn’t just an enemy in his outside life, _all this time_ _he really had been his greatest enemy within!_

Isaac chuckled anew, still very much in control of the situation. He was now circling him, perfectly at ease within that strange foggy void only the two of them occupied, the foundation of his own mind... he walked in the same way the albino remembered him do at times, when he had him at his mercy at school, savoring those moments when he made him as miserable as he could, again and again...

“Poor thing...”, he drawled on, sweetness lacing venom in his voice, without a hint of real remorse to be seen. “Marked for death the moment I came into being, one way or the other... Tell me, Lenin... have you ever thought about _suicide_?”

The word felt like a slap right to the face. 

Of course he had, he used to believe he would never have a place in a world that only seemed to hate him so, that there was no point for him to even try, and even that maybe the world would indeed be a better place without him in it after all, when he always seemed to fail at being anything more than a burden...

”Oh, I bet you have... haven’t you? Don’t be shy” He went on, his playful tone and sly face insultingly belying the weight and edge of his words.

Lenin _refused_ to give him the satisfaction of saying out loud what he wanted to hear, especially when he knew it was just more of the same old manipulation to turn him against himself...

But...

“Can’t spit it out, can you?” Isaac’s hein only grew wider.

The albino sighed in defeat, shoulders sagging as he looked down. His silence already served as an answer, didn’t it? Tears prickled at the corners of his eyes, and that old empty feeling in his chest seemed more intense than ever.

More raucous laughter came from the normal-colored lion, his ever-present tormentor, and now it seemed to echo inside his own head nonstop. “See, my little circus freak, this is what you get for coming up to me, as if you’d ever have the real bravery it takes to change your life for the better! **That just ain’t happening!** ”

Lenin clenched his fists. He desperately wanted that to not be true, he _needed_ it... but everything seemed to indicate that it was. No matter how far he’d come to get to where he was, Igzoc still had him wrapped around his little finger...

Isaac began levitating off the ground, slowly gaining height as the fog around him seemed to swirl madly all around them. “You thought I was going to mince my words with you? _Well, you thought wrong!_ You missed that chance already, the moment you dreamed of defying me and changing your fate! **Suicide was my gesture of mercy to you!** ”

At that moment, an invisible force yanked his backpack so suddenly that his arms were forced up, and he was still lifted a good feet or two off the ground before he was separated from it and gravity pulled him back to the ground to land painfully on his face. 

“Ugh...”

As he struggled to get back up, Lenin saw his backpack floating in midair until his special items were pulled out, after which it too dropped down to the ground with an audible crunch.

_No..._

He could only look on in terror, the tears now streaming down his face. The umbrella, the sword, the gauntlet and the mask... all precious items that were entrusted to him, and helped him best his previous ordeals, were now in Igzoc’s possession. They floated around him, spinning further and further away from his reach...

And before he could do anything more than taking two steps toward the nearest one, a massive whirlwind of dark energy got in his way. Isaac was transforming, like Phuny, Dimitri, Amir, Liane and Horace before him... and right before the fight even began, he was already _disarmed_!

**“YOU’VE BEEN DELUDING YOURSELF, LENIN BOY!”** His voice now boomed, the sound vibrating through the air _and_ through every inch of Lenin’s body. **“THINKING THAT PLAYING HERO WITH THESE TOYS COULD SAVE YOU, HOW PATHETIC... I’LL GET RID OF THEM FOR YOU NOW, SO YOU CAN BE REMINDED OF HOW POWERLESS YOU REALLY ARE.”**

Before long, Isaac presented himself in his true form - a humongous lion-esque form, made up of only the head and both claws, most likely as immaterial as those of his past subordinates and larger than any of them. 

The albino then heard the rumble of thunder coming from above, and even before the first drop of purple water hit him, evoking that well-known sense of fear from when he’d first arrived at Bipolar Woods, he _knew_ what he had to do, before it was too late...

**“AND NOW, YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE ETERNAL FOR AS LONG AS IT LASTS!!!”**

A few more drips of water hit him as the rain started to pick up, making his situation all the worse. Igzoc’s laughter echoed around the place, rumbling even louder than before...

**“HAHAHAHAHAHA... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...”**

And Lenin was paralyzed. The fight had only just begun, and he already was disarmed, defenseless and dead to rights. 

Still, he’d have to force himself to run, to fight, no matter how much it hurt... Otherwise, everything he did would truly have been in vain.

_That_ finally got him to start running. Even if his body was still rigid, even if he moved only because of an even bigger fear overriding his crippling _terror_ of everything that Igzoc was...

**“OH?! YOU’RE STILL TRYING TO FIGHT ME? THAT’S ALRIGHT... THAT WILL ONLY MAKE IT ALL THE FUNNIER WHEN I GET YOU TO SURRENDER!”**

He wouldn’t surrender. He _couldn’t_. 

Even if he was in conflict, he had to keep moving!

...............................................................

_Lenin...?_

Sleep was usually a blissful reprieve from the cruel reality that gnawed at her spirit, day in and day out. In the waking world, she was expected to be strong, to be understanding, to be there for her son... however, with every passing day it had become _harder and harder_ to do that much...

Even that day - which had been a good one, all things considered - she had seen him fainted on the ground, bruised, no doubt having taken yet another beating, most likely from Isaac and his gang again... and she just _failed_ to even walk up to where he was. She just... _couldn’t_. No one else seemed to do anything for them, or even deign to take notice of their situation... what could she stand to do on her own?

And yet, somehow, he’d found it in himself to _forgive her_ after she had admitted that to his face...

_Lenin!_

Sleep usually meant freedom. But now, her son was there before her. 

_Lenin..._

He was kneeling, hands joined as if in prayer. His shoulders were hunched and his face awash with tears... and yet he also smiled brightly. He talked to her, saying so many things with such a rare warmth radiating from his face that it made her eyes water... and she couldn’t even _hear_ him.

Her little boy... they had both suffered so much, and even she had stooped down to blaming him for all of it when he had never been at fault, hurting him so... and he still found it in himself to smile and hope. 

She wanted to call for him, to go up to him and pick him up in her arms, to give him all the comfort she had failed to give that day, and every day before and maybe, just maybe get some comfort for herself out of it too... but her voice wouldn’t come out, and her body wouldn’t move no matter how much she willed it to.

“This... farewell, okay?”

Those were the only words she managed to discern, coming from him. _Farewell_? Was he _leaving her_? Was that it?

He stood up, and turned away from her.

“Everything... better...”

Terror seized her heart. He couldn’t be going to do what she thought he was about to do...?

He turned his head to look at her once again. His smile looked so _sad_...

“You’ll see...“

_NO!!!_

The mother finally forced her body to move, breaking into a run, but even as she did, the form of her son seemed to be fading away before her eyes...

“Lenin!”

She was running as fast as she could now, her own voice still barely audible... No, it couldn’t be too late! It _couldn’t_! Losing him was the one thing she could never stand to bear...

“LENIN!!!”

But just when she finally managed to properly call out for him, just before she could reach him... her son had fully disappeared.

And then, darkness engulfed her...

...............................................................

Lenin was suffocating, his entire skin tingling uncomfortably. Magnolia’s umbrella danced in the air, always evading his grasp despite his efforts, and with every miss he felt he had less and less strength left in him. 

He was getting more and more soaked by the purple rain, and even though he had grown more resistant to it, it was clear that he’d still be done for if he didn’t take cover _soon_...

**“YOU’RE A FOOL, AND FEAR WILL COVER YOUR HEART!”**

Igzoc watched him, laughing his head off whenever he wasn’t taunting the albino, his victory appearing all but assured. He could feel the fear gripping at him, suffocating him! His head was spinning and there were spots all over his blurring field of vision. 

One more step... And then another... and another...

He had to... keep going...

They were waiting for him... he had to come back... he’d _promised_...

He didn’t want... to _fail_ them... or _himself_!

...............................................................

_Lenin... Ah, Lenin..._

Darkness was her whole world now. All she knew were the feel of her tears streaming down her face as she wailed into the endless void stretched all around her, heard by none, seen by none... 

It was too late. She had failed him, and there was no fixing it anymore... she lost the most precious thing to her, and the rest of the world did not care... 

She only wished her life would just _end_ now... If she couldn’t be with her son that way, at least she would be released from the unbearable hole that had formed where her heart once was, and the cruel world that never cared...

“I have to... win and... come back...”

Huh?

“I’d promised them... I would...”

Lenin?

She raised her face from behind her hands and wiped the tears, looking all around to try to find where her son’s voice was coming from...

When she managed to focus her own vision, she could barely make out a faint beacon of light in front of her...

And there he was. 

_Lenin!_

She could barely discern his form, between her teary eyes and the light behind obfuscating the image, but he was _there_! She could see he was running for his life, desperately trying to reach for an object she couldn’t identify, but seemed to be the source of the light shining down on them. 

“I can’t lose here... I need that umbrella!”

Her son was _fighting_. He had never really given up. 

Everything that had made her think otherwise... must have been just a huge misunderstanding on her part, from that moment when she couldn’t hear him properly. Or perhaps a cruel prank made by some higher being... maybe the same one that was responsible for her son’s present ordeal.

But that didn’t matter to her now. As long as her son was there, moving forward, _she would never give up_!

With renewed hope, she floated towards the light, trying to help her son reach the “umbrella”.

An invisible force tried to repeal her, as if the very darkness around them reacted to keep her from reaching her goal - _their_ goal!

But that would never deter her. That was all just more proof that the item _was_ important, and her son was fighting for it with all he had, so she too would fight along with him!

...............................................................

“Lenin!”

_Magnolia?_

The albino’s ears perked up. Was she there with him somehow?

Just by that, some of the chilling pressure in his chest and the tingling sensation through his entire body seemed to recede, and he found himself with renewed strength to try to catch the item he needed so...

_“I’m here for you, Lenin!”_

The umbrella floated away from him once again, and again he dashed after it, quite a bit faster than he had been managing to just moments before...

_“I’m sorry I failed you before, but I’m here now!”_

Lenin didn’t quite understand when Magnolia had failed him... unless...

He saw the image of a cloaked arm reaching out for the umbrella alongside his own. An illusion, perhaps? Or some kind of reality he couldn’t comprehend?

Either way, it seemed like he was being granted a little aid, and right now he’d gladly accept it. Magnolia was there somehow, helping him. He would not waste this opportunity, no matter how much the purple blots left by the toxic rain all over his body wanted to drag him down into oblivion. He leaped for the umbrella...

But just before he could reach it, the disembodied hand had caught it first. When it did, it seemed to solidify as the rest of Magnolia’s form materialized itself, and time seemed to slow down as the rest of the world faded into white all around them. Lenin’s eyes trailed up the arm... And there was Magnolia right beside him. 

But when he blinked, the image had changed, and the one stretching out her arm along with him, hand closed on the umbrella’s handle, was... _his mother._

_Mom...?_

“I won’t let you fight alone ever again, Lenin!”

It lasted no more than a second, after which the visage was gone completely and reality settled back in. 

And by the following second, which still seemed to drag on, he had noticed a cold, hard sensation in his outstretched palm. When he looked at it, _his own hand_ was gripping the umbrella’s handle now.

His heart skipped a beat.

_He’d finally done it..._

He barely had the presence of mind to twist his body in midair, so he’d fall down on his back while he pointed the umbrella to the skies, finally shielding him from the toxic rain as it was meant to. 

**“GRRRRRRAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH... INSISTENT FOOL...”**

Lenin struggled to get up, forcing himself to ignore his poor, bruised spine. He could hear the rain around him stopping, and was relieved to confirm it when he was back on his feet. Even the splotches of purple almost covering him a moment ago were slowly receding. 

Magnolia... Or had it been his mother? Who knew, maybe even _both_ of them at the same time? They both came to his aid when he needed them the most...?

He sobbed, and could feel himself tearing up again, but this time his tears were happy ones. How could he have forgotten...?

_He wasn’t alone._

_He didn’t have to bear with everything on his own anymore. Even when he was on his own, his loved ones were with him in spirit, wishing him all the best from both worlds..._

He was just glad, right then and there, that he had endured, that he had found it in himself to reach out for others and had them reach out back to him...

Suddenly Igzoc didn’t seem all that invincible anymore. 

**“I‘LL PUT YOU IN YOUR PLACE!!!”**

Lenin stood firm, buoyed by his renewed feeling of loving and being loved, and braced himself. The environment around him began to change again. Igzoc was preparing his next move...

**“Good job...”** , said a voice inside his head.

Oh?

Lenin looked around. As the purple dissipated in the horizon, the familiar voice drew his attention to another hyena shape he knew very well vanishing along with it in the distance...

**“I’m free... Thank you...”**

His last expression was more peaceful than he’d ever seen it before... and there was some wistfulness to it as well.

  
**“And... Sorry...”**

And then, he was gone.

Lenin almost teared up again. “Oh, Phuny...”

So in the end, he couldn’t save him... all he could do was grant him release.

It left a new crack among the others on his heart... But he would have to leave the due mourning for later, though. Igzoc wasn’t going to be so nice as to wait for him. On the contrary, the purple hue in the barren scenery was entirely gone and a bluish ting had taken its place. If that hadn’t been indication enough, he felt his body numbing again, but with weariness this time.

Lenin braced himself. Just because he’d had one victory didn’t mean he could drop his guard. But now, he was sure that he could win. He knew he had everyone who cared for him right behind him, and both the fact that he’d won over Panic and Igzoc’s reaction to it were proof that he _could_ best this entire challenge!

And now, Drowsiness was next. He wouldn’t let himself fall to it.

Time to fetch the Semicolon!

...............................................................

“Lenin!”

The lioness leaped our of bed, her state of awareness not quite having caught up with her - nor had her blood pressure, causing her to have to steady herself for a moment from dizziness and head rush. 

_Lenin was in danger!_

She shook off the last of her dizziness and looked around the bedroom in a frenzy. Where was he?

_Where?_

“Lenin... son! _Answer me!_ ”

After some fumbling around in the dimly-lighted room, she finally found her way to her boy’s bed. 

But when she got there...

“Lenin...?”

......................................................................

“Gah!”

Lenin had stretched the limits of his agility and reflexes to get the Semicolon and reach one of the warping crystals while avoiding the dream staff pursuing him, but he ended up spending one second too long slashing at one of the dream crystals warping around the area... 

And the result was a direct hit across the back, sending him flying about a dozen feet before he crashed onto the floor on his face. 

“Ugh... Guh...”

It wasn’t just the pain of the hit wracking his body, he could also feel the sleep seeping into his mind against his will. He had grown much more resistant to the effects of drowsiness since his encounter with Dimitri, but obviously the staff would still knock him out if he was hit one too many times, and just as obviously he had _no_ intention of finding out the exact number.

**“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... NOW YOU’RE RIGHT WHERE YOU BELONG.”**

Of course Igzoc would gawk at him while he was down. It was just like Isaac, really... He knew he’d have to deal with his bully sooner or later, in order to have peace, but he’d thought he’d be able to reason with him eventually, or failing that, make sure he’d face the consequences of his mischief... He’d never have imagined he would have to deal with him in _this_ way...

But he had no other choice if he wanted to be at peace, now did he?

**“FOOL AND MISERABLE: SLEEP AND GET SOME DIGNITY!”**

He heard a whizz in the air and knew what was going to happen before it did. 

If he had reacted a fraction of second later, he wouldn’t have managed to roll aside and dodge the staff’s next blow, which hit the ground instead. Then he managed to scramble up to his feet just in time to dodge yet another swing. 

Panting and trembling, Lenin took his distance. His body was sore from all the running, leaping and rolling he’d been forced to do in the last... he’d lost count how long it had been since the fight started by then, not to mention all the bruises from the times he’d hit the floor and the one on his back. 

One dream crystal warped in right behind the staff, and the other far away from where he was. In his experience, going for the farthest crystal was inefficient, as it would warp away right before he managed to get a single hit in. 

He’d have to get past the staff somehow to reach the one in front of him. 

Lenin lunged toward the staff, watching its movements and preparing to perform the appropriate feint. 

The staff swung in an horizontal arc...

And Lenin promptly ducked and rolled under it, then got up and applied his best overhead strike on the crystal. 

It shattered, and its pieces faded into nothing before his eyes, just like Dimitri’s...

But again, he had lingered in one spot for too long. 

When he looked back, the staff was inches away, and it was all he could do to raise his arms to try and soften the incoming blow...

“GAAAH...”

The strike felt more painful this time, and he thought he had been sent flying farther too. And on top of it he had landed poorly on his side. He saw stars, and even as he somehow forced himself back up, Semicolon had flown away from his hand, spinning on the floor until it stopped several feet away from him.

It was anyone’s guess how he hadn’t ended up with open wounds, broken bones and dislocated joints yet, he thought, as he stepped back away from another assault of the staff. Either his newly developed qualities granted him some measure of supernatural toughness in this dream-like place, or it was really just because this entire world was some kind of dream, and injuries were less serious on the physical body than they would be in real life by nature... After all, their main effect seemed to be on the mind. 

_“‘Where are your burn marks if you were burned?’, they say.”_

Like the panda Seer from the Mansion had said, just because the injuries didn’t show on the outside, it didn’t mean they weren’t serious...

But now, he was _disarmed_ , and the staff was upon him again. The albino forced himself to dodge it again and again, looking for an opening to get back the Semicolon...

Darkness creeped into the corners of his eyes now. Another direct hit from the staff could well be the end of him. 

He had to find a way... No matter what, he had to win!

“Concentrate, Lenin!”

Huh?

The second of distraction would have meant his demise, if not for the boost of morale it gave him before his brain could even process it. Another swipe dodged, if narrowly...

_“Concentrate, Lenin. Don’t lose your focus!”_

A frontal strike almost got him, but missed when he bent sideways at the last second. He wasn’t expecting to see Harriet and Rudolf showing up too, but after Magnolia, maybe he should have...

But as much as their presence elated him, lifted his spirits and renewed his determination just like the hyena’s had... _“Concentrate”?_ What the hell, did they think he was fooling around?

“Lenin, please, it will be bad if you don’t focus in the right way! Ignore everything else that gets in the way of that!” Harriet apparently decided to elaborate on her previous advice, and... she also sounded a little more distressed than usual?

Sure, Harriet wasn’t a robot, she had her moments of openly showing emotion, and the current situation _was_ dire. But still...

“Just get the Semicolon back and break that crystal to pieces, boy!” And now Rudolf too sounded rather uncharacteristically blunt and impatient, though it also seemed to be out of concern... 

Lenin could only think of one explanation for that.

“And don’t think of anything else besides that!”

Oh?

Maybe _that_ was what they meant by concentrating! To ignore the pain, the exhaustion, even the fear of spoiling his chances of winning this fight... Everything that was holding him back. 

Lenin decided to try. No matter how difficult, it seemed to be his best chance. 

The boy steadied his breath as best he could with a magical floating staff threatening to put him to sleep forever. Focusing on breathing deeply felt good, and with every exhalation, he allowed the needless concerns and the noise drift away from his mind...

_Dodge, breathe, focus... Dodge, breathe, focus..._

_Don’t stop, no matter what._

_Dodge, breathe, focus..._

In the end, he’d spent quite a few minutes of dodging, breathing and focusing...

But after that long, he found that the more he breathed and focused, the easier it became to continue doing it, the more his body and mind both relaxed and the easier it became to even avoid the pursuing implement of death by sleep, its movements appearing to become just slow enough to dodge cleanly - or was it him who was speeding up? Even the pain and exhaustion had become much more bearable.

The whole thing reminded him of meditating, from when he’d tried it out with one of his classmates the previous day. Maybe what he was doing was a form of meditation too...

**“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... COME HERE, LITTLE WHITE LION... LET ME SHOW YOU SOMETHING NICE!”**

Igzoc still seemed confident in his own victory.

That was good for him. He could take advantage of that. He ducked down and away from another swing, scooped the Semicolon up and darted off.

Another thing he’d noticed earlier, and remembered now that he was more focused thanks to his friends’ help, was that the crystals warped around the place at random - while it made it that much harder for him, it also meant there was a chance that the crystal warped to a spot near himself and away from the staff. A chance he should absolutely be on the lookout for: despite his more relaxed state, he’d still expended quite a bit of energy already, and chances were there would still be more after this. Anything that helped him conserve his energy, he _had_ to take.

Circle the staff in the opposite direction from where it had swung towards. Reach the crystal, and slash it once before it warped away. Find another opening, and strike once again while the staff wasn’t too close yet. Rinse and repeat... until...

_There!_

The crystal appeared on his left this time, and the staff was quite a ways off to his right. 

_“GO, LENIN!!!”_

Most likely noticing the opportunity themselves, his two sheep friends shouted their own words of encouragement. As he reached the crystal, he could faintly see their forms floating on either side of him.

There was his chance. Lenin screamed, putting all his energy into the sword as he swung it...

_“GO!!!”_

And three good strikes later, the last crystal shattered, and its pieces vanished into thin air.

At that moment, the world turned white and time slowed again, like before with Magnolia. Harriet and Rudolf were there, cheering for him. And just like with her, the moment he’d blinked, their images had been replaced with those of Edward and Harry, frozen in the very same stances.

Just like he’d thought...

When Lenin had snapped back to reality, the staff had just closed in on him from behind. His muscles tensed, preparing to dodge once more... but it turned out to be unnecessary: before reaching him, it too had dissipated in a puff of black smoke, blowing around him before vanishing. He’d covered his face on reflex, but the smoke seemed to do him no harm.

**“HAAAAAAAAAAHHHH... YOOOOOOOOUUUUUU!!!”**

Igzoc was _furious_. Lenin was sure he’d kill him right then and there if he could... but the more he fought, the more his nemesis’ capability to force him to succumb seemed to diminish. Perhaps that was also the reason why Igzoc couldn’t just destroy his weapons or take them out of reach permanently, leaving him unable to fight - the more Lenin empowered himself, the less power Igzoc had...

Almost like his power had really always been Lenin’s all along!

And with that, finally he had a reprieve from all the running. Lenin could catch his breath for a while until Igzoc was ready to attack him again, as it happened after he’d defeated Panic. And again, his friends’ support had been as paramount to his success as his own will to fight on. 

He knew already that he wasn’t alone, after Magnolia and his mother reminded him of it. But now, after Harriet and Rudolf’s advice - as well as Edward and Harry’s, as it may be - he understood that maybe he should try to listen to others more, and see things from their point of view as well. Even if it might hurt his pride at first...

On the distance, Dimitri was disappearing, just like Phuny. Unlike Phuny, Dimitri had nothing to say to Lenin, he just glared at him instead, dissatisfied with his own defeat. And likewise the lion said nothing to the priest, merely held his gaze until his form was gone entirely...

After that, he noticed the temperature rising quickly in the place, and he could also smell smoke and hear crackles of fire. It was almost time to run and fight again, and from the looks of it, Igzoc’s sequence of attacks was going to match the order at which he’d fought each one of his subordinates...

So it was Anxiety next. Fire and electricity. He started searching for the Strength Gauntlet in advance of what would come...

And found it just a few feet away. 

Lenin blinked, momentarily astounded. Unlike the other items that had given him trouble just to get, the Gauntlet just... _sat there_ , waiting for him to wield it. Was it fate that had him end up close to it...?

Or maybe... In the end, right before they’d disappeared in front of his and Iz’s eyes, Amir and Liane had been on his side, even if Igzoc’s power had forced them against him and was about to do it again. 

The boy smiled to himself, reaching for the item. He probably should be grateful that they, too, might have found their own small way to assist him...

..........................................................

In a house several miles away from Samiga Village, a young lion sat awake on his bed in the middle of the night, sweating and panting from shock. 

“Holy... smokes... what was that all about?”

Edward had just had the scariest dream he’d remembered ever having... Lenin, his new friend from school, was running away from a staff that was hurting him, trying to kill him. He also wielded a brightly shining sword with a peculiar shape which he‘d recognized as belonging to the main character from the “Harriet - The Liberator” book, and sought to break two floating objects. 

Tears prickled at the corners of the geeky boy’s eyes. The staff eventually managed to land a painful whack on Lenin’s back, who was thrown several feet away by the force of the impact. When he got up, he looked dizzied and about to faint, and a sinister laugh boomed across the void in which the scene took place - that had to be Lenin’s enemy.

He’d called for Lenin to be careful again and again, he’d cheered for him... he’d really tried hard. But Lenin couldn’t listen, it seemed... It broke his heart. Lenin was being hurt in front of his eyes, and Edward could do nothing for him but _watch_!

Lenin, ever the brave one, fought through the pain and the exhaustion, and after several minutes of struggling, managed to destroy one of the crystals... and got another hard whack for his trouble, being sent flying again and now losing his weapon on top of it. 

And that was when Edward’s anguish reached its peak. While the albino was scrambling just to avoid being hit, Edward frantically _screamed_ any advice or plead that came to mind: for him to be strong, to not lose, to not take unnecessary risks, to _concentrate_...

And _that_ finally managed to get him through to his friend. 

Lenin seemed to get some of his act together afterwards, so Edward seized his chance to give him the best advice he had while he still could - the one that seemed to have worked out of them all, and which he’d also remembered from the very same book Lenin’s sword referenced: to _concentrate_ ; to ignore everything else and focus only on what had to be done. 

And then, to his immense relief, Lenin managed to fight on much better after that, retrieving his sword and eventually destroying the last crystal. 

But then, the staff was upon him again. 

And Edward didn’t even have the time to yell a warning to him before he woke up.

Needless to say, the whole deal had left him absolutely _terrified_. 

He let himself drop back down onto his mattress, an uneasy sigh escaping from his lips while his unfocused eyesight focused on the ceiling, his breath only just steadied. There was no point in going back to sleep even if he’d thought he could, the birds were chirping outside, and the room was becoming naturally lighted, indicating the approaching dawn and a new day at his new school soon to follow...

He only hoped he’d get to see Lenin as soon as he arrived there, and just leave the whole thing behind as nothing but a horrible dream...

.........................................................

Meanwhile, in another house in Samiga Village, another young lion also lied awake in his bed during the early hours of morning, the same thoughts chasing one another in his mind. 

“What the...?”

Harry sat down and wiped some sweat from his forehead. That wasn’t the first time he had one of those weird dreams, Lenin wielding the Semicolon from Harriet, the Liberator was actually rather low on the weirdness scale... but that was that first one that had him _scared_ like that. 

_Lenin in danger, Lenin fighting, Lenin being hurt, again and again, while the bigger lion with all the strength he’d often boast about was powerless to do anything but scream for him and pray..._

He felt a twinge inside his chest. It was funny how fate worked: one day he stood against Lenin for no better reason than him just being albino and a loner with easy to mock interests, and the next day the boy was in his dreams and he cared for him as if he were a long-time friend... Not that he had ever particularly hated Lenin, to be honest with himself, but... he had to defer to Isaac, who _did_. It was easier to pretend he hated the albino when he didn’t know the first thing about him, to the point that some of the scorn had even become _real_ , at least to himself - but the moment Lenin actually did something nice to him, introducing him to a new friend and fellow Sandman enthusiast... he just couldn’t bring himself to be mean to the boy any longer. 

So he went as far as tricking Isaac to defend the boy during lunch... and when the albino went to talk to him afterwards, he’d felt uneasy even as he’d tried to dismiss him - but not because he felt judged by him, on the contrary: it was like Lenin could see right through him, and understood him down to those things about himself that he was guilty of having cast away...

Harry almost wished the other lion _had_ in fact judged him, because what he had done instead was giving a very hard pill to swallow.

A frustrated sigh escaped him as the twinge in his chest became a cold grip. He really was _nowhere_ near as strong as he looked - or tried to make others see him as, at any rate... he sure wasn’t as strong as Lenin, who he’d even called “a brave coward” but who was brave enough to overcome his own cowardice - unlike himself. No matter what the boy had been through, quite a bit of it having his own hand involved... _he didn’t ever break_.

He should never have been as cruel as he had been to the boy... but the main issue was, he didn’t know how to stand up against Isaac’s tyranny either. And by his cowardly connivance, others around him went on suffering...

Harry stood up and walked to the room’s window, opening it and looking out at the woods as the crisp morning air coursed through his body. He, too, could only hope he could see Lenin doing well and good when the time to go to school came, and that they could all make amends and find a way to move on from the ugly past he’d had his own part in causing, toward a new and better future...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Igzoc is kinda hard to write because I don’t really have access to his pre-fight dialogue anymore, so I just went with what I remembered from it and then made some stuff up to fill in the gaps - hope I’ve gotten him down more or less right 🤷♂️


	4. Escalation

**“ANGUISH WILL REPLACE YOUR AIR!”**

Lenin gritted his teeth, and pulled the statue again, dragging it with all his strength across the fire corridor that stretched on as far as his eye could see. He had already faced fire before, but this time he couldn’t even tell where it was coming from - at least with Amir it came from those pyrotechnical devices on the floor, so he had an indication of where the fire would come from, even if there was no way to know which devices would trigger next. 

This time, the fire could come from literally _anywhere_. When he thought there was a safe enough spot, a stream of fire would pass through it in the blink of an eye - quite often too fast for him to dodge. He had already gotten burned a few times already, and narrowly avoided it at least twice more, and like before, though there were barely any external signs of injury, he knew the toll on his mind and soul had to be far worse and he couldn’t sustain much more of it...

“ARGH!”

And then another stream of fire hit him, pushing him down to the floor, too fast to dodge even though he’d let go of the statue and tried to. 

**“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA... BURN DOWN TO ASHES, STUPID BOY!”**

He scrambled back to his feet, and _leaped_ to where the last stream of fire had just passed - the albino had deduced that maybe the fire wouldn’t pass through the same place twice in a row. It had been half educated guess from watching the fire patterns, half desperate trial-and-error tactic, but nonetheless it seemed to have worked so far. 

After some quick sidestepping, the fire stopped for a moment. But Lenin had to keep on moving nonetheless, the fire would come back quite soon, and he had no idea how to tell where exactly the first volley would be fired at...

He pulled at the statue again, and he could feel his body all but screaming in protest. It hurt... It hurt so much...

But he had to keep going... he’d never find true peace if he didn’t keep going...

“You’re getting close, Lenin! Don’t stop now!”, Amir’s characteristic voice rumbled inside his head. 

Lenin sighed in relief again. He had been kind of expecting the elephant to show up, though he was also unsure that he would be able to, him and his sister being apparently trapped as parts of Igzoc’s being like his other subordinates, and wouldn’t have expected more of them when they’d already done him the immense favor of leaving the Gauntlet close by for him to pick.

But if Amir was there, then he was sure that Liane too would...

“That’s right, Lenin! You’ve nearly figured this one out too, just a little more and you’ll have it solved! You can do it!” 

And indeed, the rat’s squealing voice didn’t take long to join her brother’s. 

That was a very good sign - it meant that Lenin was that much closer to overcoming Anxiety. Amir and Liane’s moral support meant the world to him, even if they were powerless to stop their former power from being used against him... 

Or were they completely? The lack of electricity attacking him could well be indicating otherwise!

Lenin had almost aligned the statue with its pad when the first volley of fire came, and one stream of fire blew right behind him, to his shock. 

“Lenin!”

The albino jerked his head up in surprise. Iz too?

“Don’t be afraid! Look for another pattern here!”

Oh. He hadn’t quite expected Iz to come to his aid too... but Lenin was becoming pretty well-learned at not looking a gift horse on the mouth lately.

_Don’t be afraid, and look for another pattern..._

Maybe that meant he should look for a pattern to the specific stream of fire near the pad that had just given him a scare...

“Lenin, look out!”

He’d dithered for too long, and another stream of fire hit him, pushing him back to the statue’s side. 

  
“GAAAH!”

“Lenin!”

The voices of his three friends reached out to him as he fell. The more the fire burned him, the more it hurt, and he felt the searing pain on his entire skin and beneath it this time. 

**“SOON IT WILL ALL BE OVER...“**

And if that wasn’t indication enough, Igzoc’s taunt had to be. He was pretty sure he couldn’t afford another hit...

So he jumped to where the stream of fire had just hit him, and sure enough, more fire blasted through the place where he had just been right after like a whole vertical column made of it, covering the statue as it was blown from either side of it. 

Lenin stood up, panting. _His body hurt so much..._ Even moving around took all of his willpower...

But at least... he had understood the other pattern Iz was talking about. First the fire had been blown a few feet away from the statue, then right beside it, and finally right on top of it.

He knew what to do now.

“What are you waiting for?”, Amir called, accompanied by Liane and Iz as their ‘images’ now floated beside the pad in front of his eyes. 

“Come on!”, Liane called as well, while Iz kept silent, urging him onward only with his look full of concern.

He ran back to the statue and pushed it toward the pad, the first volley of literal fire blowing all over the corridor... including the one stream of fire passing through that specific spot a couple feet away. 

_He’d figured it out, just like Liane had said!_

Lenin kept on pushing the statue as the first stream of fire ceased and the second one blew right beside him. 

_Just a little more..._

But right when he was next to the pod, the second stream of fire had also stopped, and he had to stop to dodge the third one...

**“NO WAY... YOU FIGURED OUT THE PATTERN TO THE FIRE?”**

Igzoc sounded more worried than he’d ever heard him. That boded pretty well for his overall progress in the fight... but not nearly as much for his near future.

**“YOU SNEAKY RAT... I’LL SHOW YOU!”**

The last stream of fire had ceased, and Lenin was sure Igzoc would change around the pattern to catch him off guard. He wouldn’t had a clue of where to go to dodge it - or if there would be any safe spots at all - so he was all but sure to get burned again, and most likely it would be the last straw for his body and mind.

He _had_ to push the statue onto the pad before the fire started again. He was _so close_...

“Come on, Lenin!”

The boy ran into position and gave the statue one last good shove...

In an instant the fire was nearly upon him...

And then the statue fell into place. 

Igzoc howled in frustration again as the stream of fire heading toward him fizzled, failing to harm him any further just like the dream staff had. All streams of fire stopped blowing afterwards. Even the corridor of fire around him was dissipating, as the temperature around him dropped back to normal.

Lenin dropped to his knees exhausted, his head spinning and the world turning white... 

“Good job, Lenin!”

“You’ve done it!”

When he’d looked up, Amir and Liane were smiling down at him, and so was Iz. He knew their image would change when he blinked, just like the others, and sure enough, when he did, he saw... _Antony and Leandro_?

He blinked again. Yep, those were Antony and Leandro... Or was it Leandro and Antony? He wasn’t quite sure which was which... to be honest, he almost hadn’t associated the two pairs of siblings, one pair being quite equals to one another while the other seemed like exact opposites... but their association with food and even a passing mention of some anti-Internet rule had clued the lion in.

Iz too didn’t seem to have changed form like the others, though. He just stood there beside Antony and Leandro, forming quite the disconcerting scene... Did that mean he didn’t have a counterpart in the real world like the others? Or just that Lenin hadn’t figured his out?

“That’s it, boy!”

Well... it didn’t matter too much. He was still there, fighting with him just like the others.

“We’re rooting for you!”

“Don’t forget...”

And then, after Amir and Liane too gave out their parting words, the three disappeared and reality returned to the quickly fading red in the horizon... The statue, too, had disappeared along with its pad... There seemed to be no Amir and Liane silhouettes on the horizon either. Lenin guessed it might be because they had already parted in that previous moment, being brave enough to stand as his allies instead of his enemies...

Maybe Phuny just hadn’t had the willpower to do the same... but Lenin didn’t blame him. It had been no more than a day since the lion had _begun_ to find his own...

A sigh escaped the boy’s lips as he stood up, the burning pain mostly fading from his entire body. Despite that, he was still _beyond_ exhausted. He felt like only sheer willpower kept him moving forward now.

That, and hope too. It was the very fuel for that willpower, after all - what was the point of fighting on without even a trace of hope for something to fight _for_?

He’d soon be needing all the hope he could muster, as he could tell from the temperature now dropping quickly below ambient levels. After beating Panic, Drowsiness and Anxiety, his last challenge would be Hopelessness, after all. 

Lenin ran for the Mask, planning to have it on to protect himself in advance if there was miasma involved again...

**“OH NO, YOU DONT!”**

But Igzoc had the area around him change before he managed to get there. In the blink of an eye, the Mask had disappeared to elsewhere... the Gauntlet too was gone from his hand, but that was much less of a problem now that it had already done its job.

**“I ADMIT, I’VE UNDERESTIMATED YOUR NEWLY ACQUIRED TENACITY... AND THE NERVE OF THOSE SUBORDINATES OF MINE YOU’VE MANAGED TO SWAY TOO... BUT I’M GETTING SERIOUS NOW. NO MORE FREEBIES!”**

When he could see again, he saw the entire floor changed into a grassy field littered with some rocks here and there. And the air just became colder and heavier by the minute...

**“MY WORDS STILL STAND, LENIN: YOU STILL HAVE NO CHANCE AGAINST ME!“**

Lenin rolled his eyes. Typical comic book villain speech... Was Igzoc still so sure of his victory when he had only one more round to go? Was he really so self-absorbed that he couldn’t see the albino actually had victory at his reach, after all the efforts he’d made just to get there?

Or did that mean... something else?

Again, he had no time to give it a lot of thought. The floor was suddenly covered in ice, and a strange smell wafted through the air... Uh-oh. 

Problem.

Lenin analyzed the landscape, quickly spotted the Mask at south from where he was positioned, and tried to figure out the quickest path to reach it through the slippery ice before there was enough miasma in the air to poison him to death.

_No stopping now._

It was time to put an end to this whole mess and turn over a new leaf!

..................................................................

“Antony...? Antony!”

“Yeah, Leandro, I’m awake...”

The sun had already risen, as could be seen by the thin beams of light filtering through the window frame. The twins got up from their respective beds, and turned to look at each other. 

Leandro yawned into his palm. “Did you have a... bad dream?”

“Uh-huh...” Antony mirrored his twin’s yawn, and then started stretching off the last of his sleepiness. 

Silence fell between them. They both could feel it, _something_ was wrong. An uneasy feeling lingered within their chests, and they could both see that the other was feeling the same way, too. They weren’t the brightest stars in the sky when it came to feelings and such, but they did know each other the best...

The thing was, they were _afraid_ of touching the subject. 

Antony stood up, stretched a bit more... then looked back at Leandro, who hadn’t even _moved_ from his spot, and finally worked up enough courage to break the silence.

“Did you... have a bad dream too?”

“I... Yeah.”

More silence between them. Usually, mentions of bad dreams between them warranted nothing more than some good-natured mockery (or sometimes not so good-natured), a few laughs, some jabs at each other’s expense... _at worst_ a little roughhousing every now and then...

But now, there was no room for such light moods. The tension in the air could be cut with a knife. 

“Was it... about _Lenin_?”

Antony’s eyes merely widened at the mention of their former bullying target... turned _friend_. Well, the three of them most likely had a ways to go until they could be called friends in the truest sense of the word, after everything they had done to the boy... but after the agreement they’d had the day prior, they hoped they’d reach that status someday. 

“There was... fire... so much fire...”, Leandro finally muttered. 

Antony furrowed his brow. “So you saw it too...”

Both Antony and Leandro felt their stomachs drop at that moment, no more words being needed for them to understand. Lenin was a kind boy, and sometimes could really surprise people with unexpected showings of inner strength and insight - a kind of strength very different from the kind Isaac swore by, for sure...

And now, both Leandro and Antony had had the exact same dream. _Fire everywhere, even flying around in huge streams... Lenin fallen to the ground, burned... Lenin using every ounce of his courage to fight through the pain... And they could do nothing but watch and try to speak to him while the horror show unfolded..._

“Antony... I don’t like this one bit...”

Antony didn’t either. 

That uneasy feeling from before just wouldn’t leave them. And on top of that, the fact that both twins had the same dream was pretty telling. They had no clue how things worked for the other twins out there, but they still knew each other better than anyone else knew them... and they knew that had never happened to them... _until now_.

If two separate people were having the same dream, that dream had to mean something more. Something ominous, in this case. And Lenin was right at the center of whatever it was.

If something happened to him, especially now that the two of them had just...!

No, they couldn’t stand there.

“Go dress up, Leandro. We’ve got to get going!”

Antony had already decided what they would do next. And by the way Leandro complied without question, hopped off his bed and hurried toward their closet to do as he was told, he had already agreed to it.

In some ways, they were pretty in sync after all...

..................................................................

Lenin’s lungs _hurt_. Where he had been close to suffocating from the hot air before, now his lungs were on fire while the rest of him went numb from the cold even as he ran for his life against the ice wedges raining down on him. 

And that was before taking the miasma into account. 

He had been right, there _had_ been miasma, and now with every second, it became thicker in the air, and naturally it made his body feel weaker and his head lighter with every breath - of which there were many since, again, he had to run for his life...

Thankfully, his newfound presence of mind developed over the course of his hardships had paid off - the calculations he’d ran on the fly turned out to be sufficient for him to get to the Mask before the miasma got _too bad_.

**“WHY DOES SOMEONE AS UGLY AS YOU EVEN TRY TO FIGHT?”** As always, Igzoc watched from afar, waiting for his victory to come true. 

As if Lenin would go down without a fight... The time when he did that was over! His power was impressive, but Lenin was besting it one assault at a time.

As soon as he wore the Mask, the albino heard a different sound of cracking ice coming from above... Guessing what was to come next, he looked up - and was proven right when he saw a bundle of cold energy forming into an ice wedge over his head.

_Keep moving._

His body was shaking, and not just from the cold - he felt like he could keel over at any moment now. Even though the effects of Panic, Drowsiness and Anxiety on him had worn off as he defeated them, the exhaustion and injuries his body sustained from all the effort he’d had to put in to reach that point hadn’t quite... 

Nonetheless, he got himself moving again. For the sake of his own future and to honor the trust that had been placed in him.

He jumped into the ice and steadied himself, sliding away in a straight line being the best he could do since the first time he’d come across a patch of ice - he didn’t have a lot of practice with skating on it, but at least he was able to keep from slipping and falling. Which would mean _death_ there, what with the ice wedges just narrowly missing him as it was...

“Whooa!”

All of a sudden, he had to reach out for one of the rocks, propping himself on it... _just before he slid off the edge of the cliff he’d been headed to._ Thankfully, he had one of the precious few patches of grass remaining in the place available to give him a bit more traction, as well. 

Lenin clung to the rock face for dear life and looked down for a moment, seeing nothing but a bottomless darkness that made him shudder. He realized then that the place he was on wasn’t some kind of plain fields like he had initially though, but a clifftop, much like the place he had faced off against Horace at. 

_He really should have known..._

The boy stepped away from the cliff. He would only have to be all the more careful. If he fell off, it was likely that he’d die all the same...

And he didn’t have a lot of time to replan his escape routes either. One second of distraction had meant another ice wedge was upon him again. He pushed himself off the rock face he had been leaning on and dodged it...

And then an ice spire grow exactly where the wedge had fallen. 

That was when he understood that the issue about having limited room to run was only going to get _worse_... when he looked back, massive spires of ice had sprouted from the floor wherever a wedge had landed - more like when Horace was chasing him on the Sky Ship than before at the top of the Blue Cave. And yet, some of them seemed to be growing off the floor _spontaneously_ \- just like the start of his fight with Horace, except at a _much faster rate_ than he could have expected. Climbing those also seemed like a poor idea, given the obvious lack of traction he’d have, his own lack of climbing skills and the fact that the ice wedges were still attacking him from _above_...

And while he had been busy thinking, he seemed to be approaching a dead end.

The albino bit the inside of his cheek, looking around desperately for a way out. The way he’d come from was quickly blocked off, though.

With nowhere to run, he was forced to stop. Another ice wedge formed above him, ready to freeze him to death. Igzoc was really pulling all the stops to kill him, but he had come too far to lose now...

“Over here, Lenin!”

_Huh?_

He looked, and saw an indistinct figure floating off the floor across a patch of ice to his side - and when he had looked that way, he noticed a small gap through what seemed to be solid stalagmite among all the other ones the moment before, just wide enough for him to wriggle through and pass. 

So he did that, pushing himself out just in time for the wedge to fall on the spot he’d been trapped in before, which was quickly taken by yet another ice spire...

“That’s it!”

Once free from his impromptu cage, Lenin grinned at the crow floating beside him. He’d know that raspy voice anywhere. All his other allies had come to his side to help him with his final battle, if only in spirit - and Bertram was no different. 

And like almost all of the others, he was sure Bertram had some kind of relationship with someone he knew from his daily life in Samiga Village. And he was quite sure who it was this time. The way he was kind of acting like a coach to him right then just convinced him all the more...

“Come on, Lenin, keep moving!”

He snorted to himself. _Running for his life on ice_ hadn’t been quite what he had in mind for his first lesson... But still, he couldn’t help himself - just the fact that another of his friends had come for him reassured him that he was on the right path.

And now, this one lifelong fight of his was _nearing its end_.

Lenin ran off in a different direction this time, looking for the places with the least amount of stalagmites and ice spires for him to have as much room as possible to move and dodge. The ice wedges, he’d finally noticed, seemed to have less and less energy into them, and the spires rising from the floor grew ever shorter. 

**“JUST ACCEPT YOUR HOPELESS FATE AT ONCE!”**

Igzoc looked and sounded more frustrated than ever - Lenin could almost _laugh_ at him now, if he still hadn’t been very much in danger of life and tired beyond belief. To think he had thought the battle all but lost at the start... it seemed almost unthinkable now.

“Don’t stop moving, Lenin! Remember, _the game ain’t over until it’s over!_ ”

That made the albino shake his head and snort again, despite his predicament. _“The game ain’t over until it’s over”_... Really, could he be any more obvious?

But of course, his friend was right, and he still wasn’t out of danger just yet. After such a long time dodging his enemy’s ice, there wasn’t a direction he could look without being met with walls and walls of ice spires, and finding a way out only became more difficult over time. 

_Right... Right... Left... Right... DEAD END, GO BACK... Okay, that was close..._

But his strife was about to end. Victory was within reach. He would cling to that belief now and fight on.

For a few more minutes, he kept running and pivoting... until he looked back over his shoulder, and saw the ice spires were barely as tall as him anymore. They had only reduced in size a little compared to that before, so that probably meant Igzoc’s powers had finally reached their limit...

**“GRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”**

Even before the last ice wedge had been dropped and dissolved into mere flakes of energy right behind him, Igzoc was already _howling_. Lenin finally allowed himself to stop, supporting himself on the ice spire at one end of the narrow corridor free of spires he’d have left to run around in, had the attack continued, and took his time to catch his breath even as the cacophony took place all around him. 

Of course, while he was still catching his breath, he saw the world around him turning white again, like it did whenever he’d beaten one of Igzoc’s subordinates...

Sure enough, when he looked back again, Bertram seemed to be frozen in a victory pose, jumping for joy in the air - and just as surely, the vulture’s still image changed as he blinked, just like the others had. 

The lion who had replaced him was raising his fist into the air in celebration. Lenin smiled at him even as his image disappeared.

_Right in time, Jackson..._

When reality came back into view, most of the spires had disappeared and the few ones remaining were breaking into many chunks before dissolving into thin air, while the ice on the floor disappeared from under him likewise, leaving only grass on which he could walk normally underneath. The grass also seemed to extend beyond where he remembered the borders of the clifftop were... so Lenin figured they must actually be a healthy part of this place, kept mostly suppressed by Igzoc’s ice.

Now ice wouldn’t be everything in his life anymore. Bertram and Jackson, and every one of his other friends before them too... they had seen to that together with him.

A couple miles above, Igzoc’s own form was also dissipating, and Horace didn’t even seem able to look at Lenin, appearing as much in pain and shock as his master, his face seeming to scream soundlessly as the last of his life essence dissipated like Phuny’s and Dimitri’s did before.

Lenin dropped to his knees then, eyes filling with tears as all the pain he had endured, the exhaustion both physical and mental... everything caught up with him all at once. 

It was over now...

It _hurt_... it hurt so much more than anything before ever had... But he was going to be okay...

He could finally believe in that... 

..................................................................

Sitting alone on one of the benches at the PE court, Jackson blinked. And then blinked again. 

_Had he dozed off?_

The jock slowly got off the bench and stretched his still sore body, looking at the clock on the wall. Twenty minutes until the first class began. It seemed like he _did_ , in fact, doze off...

It wasn’t exactly the first time this happened, so it didn’t surprise him all that much. The local championship was only a couple of months away, and the rest of the team was counting on him to be on top of his game as their captain. And so did he himself - which was more so the reason why he was there. It wasn’t like he was in this seeking attention of any kind, he just wanted to do his best at something he genuinely _loved_. Otherwise, what was even the _point_? 

Well, yes, he also didn’t want to fail his team and his school. Even though he knew he shouldn’t depend on validation from outside, the expectations placed upon him were something he wasn’t able to completely ignore either... 

All of that led him to doing some extra training in his free time. Sometimes after class, sometimes before... sometimes accompanied by any teammates who would volunteer to come along, and sometimes alone, like today. Jackson could pride himself on being the one who pushed his team to the limit the most, doing his post of captain justice that way, and that didn’t change even if the only team member present was himself. And being a responsible team captain meant he had a bit of privilege in using the PE court for practice outside of school hours. 

Of course, training hard would _hinder_ his performance instead of helping it without the proper rest and nutrition to accompany it. So he helped himself to a quick “recovery shower” (a bit of thermal shock done carefully did wonders to help him relax after training) and a quick snack (two eggs boiled just before leaving home, an apple for a fruit and plenty of water) before sitting down on one of the players’ benches to rest a bit...

And then he seemed to have dozed off for a bit right there. 

Again, Jackson would just have shrugged it off it had been just a short nap after a hard training session, but the dream he’d had... there was something else to it. 

It had felt _real_. More real than any other dream he’d remembered having.

Lenin was running around with a mask very similar to the one he’d shown the music teacher when he proposed the mask musical to him during last afternoon’s class. An incredible move, and right after setting him up to talk to Alice too - even if things with the girl hadn't turned out like he had expected in the end.

Moreover, Lenin seemed to be in huge danger in that dream, running from ice covering the entire place and threatening to encase him as well... but when Jackson spoke to him, the albino seemed much more encouraged, and seeing that filled his own heart with confidence. General coaching advice seemed to work wonders for him in that situation, even helping him out of situations where he’d seemed all but cornered just by the morale boost aspect of it. 

After that dream, he’d felt that much more confident that their basketball training would go just fine...

But it was still strange that the albino lion was suddenly entering his dreams. If anything, he’d expected that to happen with _Alice_ , as his heart hadn’t quite gotten over her rejection even if his rational mind understood it... Jackson felt his face flush, and he mentally waved off the thought, fishing up the keys to the PE court in his pocket and heading toward the gate to leave the place. 

Maybe he should just keep _that_ to himself, he thought, locking down the court before heading to leave the cafeteria. Going up to someone he wasn’t even that close to as of yet and telling them he’d had a dream about them... sounded like a great way to creep them out and drive them away.

Nonetheless, he grinned. Strange though it had been, that dream seemed like a good omen to him, all things considered. It felt like Lenin and him would make a pretty good team down the line...

..................................................................

**“I... I...”**

Igzoc’s form was starting to disintegrate right before his eyes, just like every other subordinate of his after he’d faced them. 

Lenin stood up and limped towards him. His enemy, once so terrifyingly imposing, had his dark ethereal form shrinking and dissipating as it slowly floated down, unable to keep itself aloft any longer. The white fog that floated all around when he’d first arrived and met Isaac there not only was back, but now seemed to glow and expand, slowly filling the entire space around them like silver clouds in the sky.

They gave him a sensation of peace and clarity like he hadn’t felt in a very long time. 

“I am Igzoc... I bring death... How could I have been... overcome?”

Igzoc’s voice no longer rumbled through the place. Another sign of his weakening.

The albino furrowed his brow at his defeated enemy. That was the one who had literally made his life hell on Earth all this time... seeing him brought down low now felt _immensely_ satisfied - like justice being served at last.

Igzoc had changed back into Isaac’s form, the dark energy surrounding him now completely gone, and the bully that had tormented him so in the past now floated only a couple feet off the ground, eyes fixed and mouth agape as if in a trance, seeming in pain and... _unstable_. 

Lenin sighed, his heart racing. Whoever - or whatever - Isaac really was, he wouldn’t be a problem ever again. 

After this, he would be able to find his balance... Finally...

“No.”

Huh? 

The air suddenly felt heavier again, and Lenin’s heart skipped a beat. 

He took a step back. Igzoc still seemed unstable, but instead of dwindling like before, his energy seemed to be resurging... except it also looked out of control _even to himself_!

“It cannot... end like this...”

The fog around him began to swirl, faster and faster, as the air picked up speed. Isaac’s form was now shaking in midair, as if convulsing. There were horrible crunching sounds as cracks began to run over the entire extension of his body. 

“I hate... your hope... **IT ONLY BRINGS RUIN!** ”

Igzoc’s voice seemed to come directly from inside Lenin’s head now, and the moment it had changed into the growl from his true form once again, the albino was lifted off the ground by the force of the speeding winds.

“WAAAAHH...!”

Around and around he was blown, dizziness and nausea building up in his head and stomach from the force of the motion as the air howled around them. He could only describe it as a hurricane, with Igzoc right at the eye of it...

But why? 

Lenin could barely keep his eyes open now, such was the force of the wind blowing on them. He had fought to the end, and defeated Panic, Drowsiness, Anxiety and Hopelessness! He did everything as he’d been told to, Igzoc should have already been defeated...

Then why?

**“HOPE IS BUT AN ILLUSION THAT ONLY LEADS TO SUFFERING... DEATH IS THE ONLY WAY OUT...”**

He scrunched his eyes shut and clutched his own head, Igzoc’s screams pounding at it from within and even drowning out the deafening noise outside. _No!_ He didn’t want that anymore... _he didn’t_!

He had to do something! He had... He couldn’t let it end like this... He couldn’t let everything he’d worked so hard for slip through his fingers...

He couldn’t...

But it was all so overwhelming...


	5. Complication

Jackson walked down the hallways of Samiga School, having just returned the keys to the PE Court to the teacher. There were still a few minutes left before the bell for the first class was due to ring, and he had found himself planning out Lenin’s first basketball lesson would be like in his head.

As always, he drew quite a bit of attention as he went, and he could almost feel the looks coming from every direction - teachers expecting him to ace sports and academics alike, almost every other student either looking up to him, envying him or looking down or him, and then the girls, fawning about how cute and athletic and _popular_ he was and all that... all of them seeing in him a _perfect role model_ and nothing else.

Jackson was too tired of all that to even want to spare it a thought, but it seemed to have taken over his entire school life already. Even hanging out with his colleagues sometimes felt more like a chore lately - leading the basketball team to the regionals, meeting up with the next popular girl in line... then more talk about sports, girls, gossip and any number of boring stuff in their spare time... it was _depressing_ how distant he actually felt from all of them, even though they saw each other almost every day and played in the same team. 

Maybe it wasn’t that much of a wonder why he was looking forward to spending time with Lenin after all... Lenin had listened to him without judgement when he’d told him about his own insecurities, and he didn’t act like dating girls and being on top of the school’s popularity food chain was everything that mattered in life either. He had seen through the “ace player” persona that followed him wherever he’d go, and made him feel more free to just _be himself_ than any other person in that school ever had.

Jackson only hoped he could have more of that kind of understanding and camaraderie in his life...

“Excuse me...”

Snapping back to reality, he looked around, and saw a short, bespectacled lion with a shaggy mane looking back at him. 

“Um... I‘m sorry, I didn’t want to bother you, but... have you seen Lenin today?”

“Lenin?” Jackson blinked at the other lion. If he recalled correctly, that was Edward, the student who had just transferred into Samiga School the previous day. He looked... distressed, for some reason. 

“No...” The jock eyed Edward with suspicion. “I haven’t yet... I thought he’d be with _you_?” He had seem the two of them hanging out during lunch, and they seemed to be enjoying each other’s company, at any rate... 

If Edward seemed distressed before, he seemed to deflate even more right in front of his eyes. “I see... sorry for troubling you...” 

Jackson felt a twinge in his chest. There was no way he could leave the clearly distraught boy like that and keep his conscience clear. And besides, something seemed off as far as Lenin was concerned...

“Wait”, he called out to the boy, who looked back up seeming surprised - and maybe actually was surprised that someone popular was talking to him. Oh, the _society_... “Tell me, what’s wrong? Why are you so worried about Lenin?” 

Edward tensed up. “I... I was expecting to meet up with him earlier, but... I couldn’t find him anywhere...” 

That had Jackson furrowing his brow. Lenin did have his issues, no thanks to the cruelty and indifference he was constantly subjected to for the mere fact of having been born with a different appearance... Society _really_ tended to be the one that created its own worst enemies by its own ignorance, just like he’d read once in a book written by that famous psychologist, “Something” Cury...

But that wasn’t all. “I even tried asking around, but...” Edward was shaking now, and Jackson wasn’t sure whether he was closer to a fit of anger or a burst of tears. “Almost no one even cared to answer me or about what Lenin was up to... and the few who did had no idea where he was either... that Gothic Boy did say he was waiting for Lenin, too, but...”

The jock actually frowned now, and not only at yet another display of society’s general ignorance. Lenin hadn’t been seen in school today? Did that mean Lenin had decided to school again? That didn’t seem right... He _had_ spent weeks away from school, true, but that had been after a bad week capped off by a prank involving one of his paintings, or so the rumors went... something nasty even for _their_ standards... and now he had come back, and he’d seemed so _well_ just yesterday after classes... 

Had Lenin been keeping something serious to himself even then? Or did something bad happen at his home _after_ he’d left school for the day?

“Have you... tried the Art and Music Classrooms yet?” The jock knew Lenin had an interest in those... maybe he was hanging out there?

“I did, and he wasn’t there... he wasn’t at the Geography Classroom or the Computer Room either... he isn’t _anywhere_!”

Jackson felt sweat forming on the back of his neck. So it seemed Lenin hadn’t come to school after all... _What could have happened to him?_

The bell rang at that moment. The other students all began filing out of the corridors and to their respective classrooms. It was time for the class to start... But after such a foreboding talk with Edward, Jackson wouldn’t be able to feel at peace until the moment he knew that Lenin was okay...

“Edward, isn’t it? Look, you can call me Jackson...”, the jock tried again, getting an affirmative nod from the other. “I’m sorry if I’m prying too much, but... did Lenin act strange yesterday at any moment when you were with him? I mean, did he... seem out of it and unable to concentrate in general?” Jackson had heard that Lenin suffered from depression too, and yes, it had been one among many rumors at first... but not only had it seemed pretty likely from what the jock knew of his situation before, but he had become sure of it when the albino stopped coming to school entirely... 

However, he didn’t know if Lenin had opened up to Edward about that, and he’d rather not have to be the one to tell the transfer student if he could. It _really_ wasn’t supposed to be for _him_ to tell that...

Edward shook his head. “No... I mean, he _did_ seem a bit out of it for a moment before lunch, but that was it.” He paused for a moment, seeming to fumble for words before continuing. “The entire day he’d seemed just fine!”

Jackson sighed. So Edward didn’t see anything wrong with him either...

Then he tried another tack. “Okay, so... do you have any other reason at all to believe that something _bad_ might have happened to Lenin, then?”

The newcomer tensed up even more, which Jackson hadn’t thought possible, and visibly shuddered too.

“I... Uh...”

It was enough to convince the jock that he had hit the mark.

“Edward...” Jackson put his hand on either of the other boy’s shoulders. “There’s _something_ you’re not telling me, isn’t there?”

Edward looked around, avoiding his eyes.

“You... won’t believe me if I tell you...”

“Edward”, the jock tried again, and waited until the other lion was capable of looking him in the eyes again. “Please... I care about Lenin too! If anything might be wrong with him, I want to know... I want to _help_ , too!”

Edward pursed his lips for a long moment, clearly debating with himself what to do next...

Then he gulped, and finally blurted out: “It... it was just a dream, okay?”

Jackson gasped, his eyes widening at the other lion in disbelief as his hands dropped from his shoulders and back down to either side of his body. “A... dream.”

Edward looked away from his eyes again even as he’d seemingly started to blabber and gesticulate a lot more since they’d started talking. “I knew you would think it was ridiculous, but yes, it’s because of a dream I had - Lenin was in danger, running from this murderous floating staff and I couldn’t talk to him, I couldn’t help him... then I woke up and tried to tell myself it was just that, a dream, but I couldn’t shake off that bad feeling, you know? Then I got here and I just _couldn’t find him_ , right after I’ve had that _stupid nightmare_ , and... Jackson?”

Oh. 

The jock had just realized he was staring ahead, right over Edward’s head... he could feel the blood draining from his face. From what little the bespectacled boy had explained about his dream, it had sounded uncannily similar to Jackson’s own, even if some details were different - Lenin running from something attacking him, them both calling out to him from the sidelines... and they happened to have had such similar dreams about Lenin in the same day?

“Look, I’m sorry if I wasted your time, okay? I just...”

“Edward, be quiet for a moment!” 

Edward closed his mouth and stopped talking, looking at him shell-shocked. 

Jackson held up his hands in a placating gesture to him, immediately regretting his outburst. “Sorry, sorry... I just... You’re telling me you had a strange dream about Lenin today too?”

“Yes, like I was saying, I know it may sound ridiculous, but... _wait a moment._ ” Edward stared at him, mouth agape. “What do you mean with ‘too’?”

Jackson brought his hand up to his mouth, furrowing his brow. “I... actually dreamed about Lenin today, myself”, he admitted. He hadn’t thought he would be telling _that_ to someone so soon, or that it would turn out like this...

He looked back up at Edward. “I ended up taking a nap at the court when I was practicing earlier, and I had a dream... that was kind of similar to that dream you’re telling me about. Lenin was in danger, running from something attacking him... except he was running away from _ice_ in my dream, and he seemed _fine_ at the end... though he did look pretty worn out too.” There had been danger, and Lenin seemed in bad shape, but he had overcome it in the end. He hadn’t worried too much about it then because things seemed like they had ended up well... had he underestimated the gravity of Lenin’s situation then? 

Jackson felt a chill in the stomach. Now that Lenin hadn’t showed up to school, and his new friend seemed to have had a far more _terrifying_ version of the same dream, he was fearing that it might have been the case...

The other lion’s face had his face blanched as well. For a few moments, the two could only stare at each other in disbelief, silence hanging heavily above them in the now-emptied hallway. 

Edward gulped. “Jackson... What do you think this means...?”

Jackson had no idea, and the whole situation was making him feel awful about himself. What kind of friend could he _expect_ to be to Lenin if he couldn’t notice he was in trouble when in hindsight it was clear as day that even the _universe_ seemed to have been beating him over the head with it?

He _had_ to at least try to remedy his mistake now. He looked Edward in the eye once more, almost not believing what he was about suggest to him.

“I think we both should go look for him right now.”

Edward’s jaw dropped. He seemed as disbelieving of it as himself 

“Now? I mean... class has just started, and... I mean, I was thinking of doing it anyway, but... what if Lenin is actually fine and we end up skipping school for no reason?”

Jackson pinched his forehead, feeling his patience waning and his voice raising again. “Look, I’d rather have Lenin be _fine_ and have us end up in _detention_ because I was worried for _nothing_ , than just _shrug it off_ and find out later that... _you know_?” 

He couldn’t finish that sentence. And from the way Edward looked at him, he didn’t need him to...

”I understand... I feel the same way.” Edward suddenly looked more self-assured than he’d ever seen him. “After all this, I want to go see if Lenin is okay too, even if it ends up being all for nothing... Oh, what am I saying? I _hope_ it’s really nothing serious... but I still want to find out for myself as soon as possible.” 

Jackson smiled down at him. Edward had given him the best possible answer. He was glad that Lenin had a caring friend in his life now, and hoped that he too could have a chance to make up for not having reached out to him earlier and become another good friend to him...

“I guess it’s settled, then! Come on, let’s try his house first...”

...................................................................

The popular crowd at school belonged to a whole different universe... or at least that was how it had always seemed to Edward throughout the several different schools he’d attended over the years. Looks, financial standing, skills at sports... for one reason or another, they were regarded as the _best_ by anyone else, and would almost always only associate with those like themselves. Lacking any of those traits, he had never been given a fair chance to interact with any one of them, and was almost always regarded as insignificant to them. 

Now, though, Jackson seemed to have taken a demolition ball to everything Edward knew about popular people. He kept talking to Edward even beyond common courtesy after replying to what he’d asked of him, seemed to hold Lenin in higher esteem than any of the other popular kids, and in the end turned out to be concerned enough to suggest skipping school and going to look for Lenin of his own accord... 

Honestly, Edward himself was acting rather different from usual. He had no idea how he’d avoid the school staff, sneak out of school and find Lenin’s house after that, or even where else he’d try looking in case Lenin wasn’t there... but despite all that he had still psyched himself up to go.

  
Of course, having the jock with him made things that much easier...

“Wait, so you’ve never seen his house before?”

Jackson shook his head in frustration. “Actually, no... but I’ve heard plenty of times that his house was the poorest one in the village.” And then he actually clicked his tongue. “Some people would actually _mock_ him for living in a wooden house instead of a brickwork one like the rest of the village...”

Edward frowned as well. He too knew how terrible people could be, and his own family was far from being rich all the same... It just wasn’t nice, or even _fair_ , to make fun of Lenin because his family couldn’t afford a better place to live. But beyond that, if his house was _the only one in the village made of wood rather than brickwork_ , it was most likely that that wasn’t by _choice_... that, combined with Lenin‘s treatment at school, spoke volumes about how the local community regarded him and his family as well.

He’d imagined Lenin’s circumstances were worse than he’d let on, but in the end he had no idea... 

“Jackson...”

The other lion didn’t break his pace, only turning his head ever so slightly. “What is it?”

“About Lenin... he has more problems in his life than just being bullied by Isaac and his cronies, doesn’t he?”

Jackson’s eyes widened, and he stopped all of a sudden.

“Huh?”

Edward stopped beside him, twiddling his fingers. “Well, I’ve seen yesterday that Lenin is clearly shunned a lot by everyone else, and even bullied. But it’s not just by the students... when I asked the English teacher about him earlier today, she talked like it was a common occurrence with him, and just _shrugged it off_. And honestly, even the way you asked me about him today... that too kind of had me smelling a rat...”

Jackson gulped, eyes rolling away from him. He seemed very uneasy about the subject all of a sudden. “Well, you know...”

Edward gasped at him. “So it’s true, then? He has been missing school and even the teachers just _wave it off_? How long has this been going on?” Apparently long enough that the school staff had stopped caring, if they ever have... 

“Edward, calm down...”

But Edward kept raising his voice and frantically waving his arms around as he spoke. He couldn’t calm down, he was appalled. What kind of community would treat their citizens like that? Bullying at school was one thing, one that Edward himself knew well already...

“And no one even tried to understand him? Ever? How in the world is that fair?”

Being treated by the entire village as some kind of pariah for his entire life, though? He couldn’t even imagine living like that... _but that was the daily life of his new closest friend!_

“Is there really no one out there willing to help him?”

But Edward realized then, from Jackson’s shocked expression, that he had gone too far... He shut his mouth, but it was already too late.

A tense silence fell between the two lions. Jackson stood still, staring at him for quite a while...

“I’m sorry, I... I shouldn’t have...”

Jackson blinked at him, but otherwise still did not respond... and yet, he was pursing his lips, as if he wanted to say something but _couldn’t_. 

And then he snorted.

“Jackson...?”

The other boy shook his own head and sighed, looking away from him. “ _Blimey_... I guess everything you said is true, isn’t it?”

“Huh?” That caught the bookworm off guard. 

The basketball player raised his head and looked straight ahead with eyes that seemed wistful. “You know... since I’ve known him, Lenin had never been respected around the village. And from the rumors I’ve heard, his mother, too, has always been frowned down upon for having conceived the one they see as a freak...”

Edward gasped softly. To think an entire community would discriminate a lion and his family for being _differently-colored_... Samiga Village’s inhabitants were starting to seem a little... _retrograde_ in his eyes? Or were they just over-conservative? Either way, the places he’d been to before were much more accepting of different people, save for a few exceptions...

“It’s no wonder they have distanced themselves from everyone else over the years, right?“ Jackson now was looking down and digging his nails into the palms of his hands. “But instead of stopping to think _what_ they might have done to cause this, and _maybe_ do something about it, they just... _washed their hands_ and acted like it was all their own fault for being _weirdos_!”

“Jackson...” Edward held out a hand to the other lion, but quickly let it drop back down. It didn’t seem right, to see the school’s most popular guy losing his cool like this. 

But then he sighed, seeming to deflate just as quickly as he had fired himself up. “But you know what...? It’s not like I’m much better than them.” He looked at Edward in the eyes, and the geek could see the sadness in them. “I’ve known about Lenin from quite a ways back now, and I’ve never really thought of him as a freak or nuisance like the others, but... I’ve never really tried to approach him before either.” 

He sounded so _exhausted_ , Edward thought. He didn’t think the other lion would be so self-effacing and truthful about it either... he really had just _nailed_ the issue, hadn’t he?

The athlete shook his head, and looked away from the bookworm again. “I used to tell myself that it wasn’t my problem, or that I didn’t want to be made fun of for associating with him... well, that was back when I _cared_ for my reputation above anything else. But then, my reputation became a thorn on my side, and I could say I’ve started growing out of it, but... I still did _nothing_ even then. I let myself get too caught up in my own problems and... at the end of the day, I guess I didn’t learn to look past my own navel as much as I‘d thought.”

Oh. So Edward wasn’t completely wrong, Jackson had been one of those guys... but then he said his popularity had become a problem in his life? That was... new.

He sighed one more time. “As far back as I remember knowing him... he was always on his own, and no one really made an effort to reach out to him. No one... And that includes me. And even though I want to make up for the time lost now, I still seem can’t seem to do things right... I was thinking of becoming friends with him after yesterday, but... I’ve just noticed that I might well have missed that boat way too long ago...”

Jackson fell silent after that. He kept looking in the direction they had been going to, as if he wanted to find Lenin and ask for forgiveness... but guilt and doubt were holding him back. 

Was that what real guilt looked like, then? Edward had to admit he still wasn’t very adept at dealing with emotions...

But come to think of it, he had committed himself to learning _psychology_ , hadn’t he?

Edward straightened his back and adjusted his glasses. Lenin was stuck with his own problems, and now Jackson too was there to show him that being a popular kid didn’t mean being free from those. If there was _anything_ he could do, to help the people around him with those kinds of problems, and help bring out the best in them... that was what he had signed up for, right?

So he would do that. He’d see all this as a learning experience and make the most out of it.

“Don’t be so upset... we can still fix this!”

The bookworm reached out and placed his hand on Jackson’s arm. Both of them had allowed things like the status quo and prejudice to divide them and keep them ignorant for way too long... Edward wanted to do what he could to start bridging that gap, and it was clear to him that Jackson wanted the same.

The athlete gasped, his head whipping around to look at Edward, and the shorter lion saw the tears pricking at the corner of his eyes. 

And the bookworm held his gaze, bracing himself. He was heading into uncharted territory and he would have to wing it _a lot_ , but things would never change if he didn’t _try_.

“You did things before that you regret now, and that’s completely _natural_!”, he went on, mixing textbook knowledge with what little sensibility he could manage. “You grew up, you changed, and then you looked back at the past with new eyes. That’s all!”

Jackson gave him a flustered look. “I... I _did_? But I still...”

But Edward cut him off - letting him wallow in self-doubt like that wouldn’t do him any good. “Of course you did! Look, we can’t change the past, and blaming ourselves won’t make anything better, but we can learn from the past and do better next time. Lenin might not even be _that_ upset about it... and even if he is, I think he’s still capable of letting it go and forgiving you eventually.” 

“Uhh...” Jackson still seemed unsure, but to Edward it was clear: Lenin hadn’t hesitated to reach out to him, the new student in class, even after everything he’d been through. So the bookworm knew he would understand how difficult it could be... and more importantly, he had found it in himself to be kind to _his own bullies -_ he was sure Lenin had the capacity to forgive whatever fault Jackson could have regarding himself...

“Most other people don’t even care to try to understand Lenin and be more considerate of him, but you do! _Isn’t that what matters the most?_ ” Edward felt himself on fire now - he didn’t even know there was that much indignation bottled up inside him, but it was infuriating indeed. And he could _use_ this feeling. “I can’t promise you everything will go right, no one can... but think: won’t you feel even worse about it if you don’t even _try_?”

The athlete was struck speechless once again. He merely stared at Edward, his mouth hung open... Even the bookworm was surprised - this didn’t sound like himself at all... and yet, he was kind of _liking_ it?

It felt right. It felt _liberating_. He wondered if he could become _more_ like that with time...

And then Jackson began chuckling. 

Edward felt his face flush. Why was Jackson laughing at him? Did... did he say something _stupid_ after all?

“Hahaha... wow! I didn’t think you had that much spirit in you. Looks like I really do still have a lot to learn about that whole ‘not judging a book by its cover’ thing...”

“Huh?” The bookworm felt himself flush more. He didn’t know what the other meant, and it unnerved him...

But then, Jackson looked ahead with a smile. “That’s right... I definitely don’t want things to stay the way they are. I want to do things right with Lenin from now on, I’ve neglected him for too long already...”

He looked back at the bookworm then, showing him a smile that was still sad, that nonetheless had some hope to it now. “Even if he turns out to resent me too much by now, I don’t want to hide behind excuses anymore, and much less give up on him without even trying... _That’s_ why I came here.”

To the shorter lion’s surprise, the athlete then reached out to him and squeezed his shoulder. “Thanks a lot, man... I _really_ needed to hear that.”

The basketball player seemed to have regained his confidence, and Edward smiled back at him. Not too shabby for his first work as a psychologist in the making...

Jackson then turned to face ahead, tapping his own face with both palms. “Alright, I’m good now... let’s go!”

“Yeah!”

And so they kept on looking for Lenin’s house. It didn’t take long for them to find it... it really was the only wooden house they’d come across.

“This must be it... Come on!”

As Jackson went ahead toward the front door, Edward noticed the athlete had a spring to his step that wasn’t there before. All he had done was give the guy a little nudge, but he still felt so _proud_ of himself for having had a part in it...

All his life, things around him changed all the time, and eventually he’d grown used to it... but it was the first time he’d changed things _himself_. And though it had felt scary and unusual at times, this kind of change had felt _right_. He’d helped someone change for the better, and in doing that he’d changed _himself_ for the better as well...

Edward followed Jackson to the door to Lenin’s house, smiling to himself. He hoped he could become ever closer with people that promoted that kind of change in him, like those two. He had barely met them, but just from the little time he’d spent with them, it seemed like a wonderful new path in his life had become open...

Special things took time to come by, indeed.

...................................................................

There was a knock on the door. 

It drew the attention of everyone in the room. He went to the window, and saw Edward and Jackson at the front door. 

What were the two of them doing there? They were supposed to be in class now. _Unless...?_

He looked back at the group. “It’s Edward and Jackson.”

The rest of them exchanged looks. They must have thought the same thing as he did - the two probably came because they were worried about Lenin, and there was a chance they were worried for the same reasons as themselves...

“I’m sorry... Could you go answer it?” The woman naturally didn’t seem willing to leave her spot, and neither did the other two, who urged him with subtle but pointed glares to be so courteous as to do as he had been asked.

He glanced at the bed again. He didn’t want to leave the room either, considering the circumstances... but he understood.

As quietly as he could, he went downstairs and opened the door to the two new visitors... Edward was his friend, and he didn’t know too much of the bad things he had done... but there was no way to tell how _Jackson_ would react.

He opened the door to them, and they gave him looks of surprise just like he had expected...

“Harry? What...”

But Jackson didn’t let Edward finish. “ _What the hell are_ you _doing here?_ ”

Harry hunched his shoulders a bit. “I... I know this seems pretty strange, but...”

“ _Strange?_ ” Jackson glared daggers at him. “After everything you and your gang have done to Lenin over the years, what could you _possibly_ be doing in his house?” 

That felt like a punch to the gut, and there was nothing he could have said in his defense. But still... “Look, I know you have no reason to believe in me, but...”

The basketball player just laughed him to scorn, cutting him off completely.

“Jackson...”

But Jackson didn’t listen to the other lion next to them. “ _Believe in you?_ You’ve always been a piece of trash walking around the school, bullying people all the time and _enjoying_ it, especially _Lenin_. Now you show up at his house when you have no business being here, _and you really want me to believe you’re not up to something shady?_ ”

The athlete was getting up on the chubbier lion’s face now, stressing him out. He usually dealt with people talking down to him by shutting them up by force... but hadn’t that just made him all the more worthy of being talked down to in the end? 

“I swear, if you did something to Lenin, I’m going to...!”

“ _Jackson, calm down!_ ”

The two of them jumped, and looked at the bespectacled lion that now had their full attention. 

“Holy smokes...” He turned to Jackson first, hand firmly placed on the fist he had raised at the bully. “Look, Jackson, I know Harry didn’t treat Lenin right all this time... but they were beginning to make peace yesterday!”

“What?” The basketball player gave Edward a look of disbelief, his body still tense and prepared for a fight. “That _can’t_ be right, I don’t believe that!”

“But it’s _true_!” Edward’s voice was very leveled. He didn’t cave under the other’s fury, much to Harry’s consternation. 

Had Edward always been like this deep down, or...?

“Lenin took me to him to borrow a book yesterday... and he actually was pretty nice to us then”, the geek continued. “And then, when Isaac came over to harass us in the cafeteria, he even _came to our defense and tricked him_!”

“He did...? No way...” Jackson finally lowered his arm, but he hadn’t quite relaxed yet. Well, concerning himself, Harry couldn’t really expect a _lot_ of trust...

“I’m telling you, I came here because I’m worried about Lenin too...” No matter how much he knew he deserved that kind of lecture, the bully had to stand up for himself now. He had let Edward do that for him for too long... “And from what I’m guessing, you guys had a bad dream about him too, didn’t you?”

The two of them turned to look at him. He had had an inkling before, but Jackson’s over-protective reaction toward Lenin had made him quite sure of it.

“I... Yeah...”

“So... you too?”

Harry nodded. “Yeah, I’m the same. And I’m not the only one... Antony, Leandro, _his mom..._ we’ve all been upstairs for a while now, because...”

Jackson’s eyes widened. “Wait, Antony and Leandro are here too?”

“Yep, they are, and to be honest, they were the ones who called me here... they’re _worried_ too, you know.” Even the twins, who were in the same boat as him, were still better... “I wouldn’t even have known I had to come here if they didn’t call me...” 

That was enough to have Jackson raising one eyebrow at him, though he didn’t react otherwise.

He shook his head. “Look, I know we’ve all been jerks to Lenin, but right now, we’re all on his side, and he’s needing us _bad_ , just like we’ve all been fearing, so let’s put everything else aside for now and focus on being there for Lenin, okay?”

The last thing Lenin needed at this moment was a commotion inside his house.

Edward gasped. “So Lenin _is_ in bad shape after all!”

Harry gulped. There was no nice way to put it, really. But... “Well, it’s hard to explain. He’s been the same way for a while now, so it might not be _that_ bad... I think... but it _does_ look kinda bad.”

The other two exchanged concerned looks.

“Maybe it’s better if you just go see for yourselves....”, he offered.

Edward nodded at him, and walked past the other two. “Let’s go, then.”

Moments later, Edward had disappeared beyond the stairs to the bedroom... but Jackson hadn’t moved from where he was. The jock was glaring at him again, though with his arms now crossed, he didn’t seem to be preparing for a fight anymore...

“I still don’t trust you guys, you know.” His voice was carefully contained. “I’ll be keeping an eye out for you. All of you. From now on, if I see any of you giving Lenin hell again... I’ll make sure there will be _consequences_. Are we clear?”

Harry sighed. “We are.”

Jackson didn’t emote back. He just moved toward the stairs himself, sparing him not another glance, but only a single word as he passed him by.

“Good...”

And with that, he also went upstairs...

Harry sighed. He knew he wouldn’t be gaining people’s trust overnight after everything he had done, and he was just reaping what he’d sown... but it was frustrating, he couldn’t help himself. 

He turned, and made to follow. Jackson didn’t even have to ensure there would be consequences now, though it was a good thing that he too was willing to.

_He_ would see to that. For everything that had happened before...

..........................................................

“Welcome, you two... I assume you came here to see Lenin as well. Come on in...”

The lioness forced herself to be polite to the two newcoming boys in the small bedroom lit only by the sunlight coming from the window by the bed, despite concern for her son overriding everything else in her mind. She wasn’t expecting this many visitors, much less this soon and in those circumstances...

The two wasted no time in approaching her son, and they gasped as they saw what had been the scenery of her present waking nightmare...

“What the...?”

“Holy...”

Neither could speak any more... and the mother understood them. It was even more painful to watch for _herself_...

Lenin lied unconscious on his back, having tossed and turned around on the bed several times during all the time she’d seen him in that state, and hadn’t stopped until that moment. He was panting, sweating and feverish. Sometimes he would mumble something like “I can’t... lose” or “I have to... come back to them”... He seemed scared and in pain.

The two newcomers looked _devastated_. ”So he hasn’t... even woken up?” 

She just shook her head. It had been hours already. The sun had long risen, and Lenin was still trapped in what seemed to be an endless nightmare, despite her best efforts to try to wake him up - she had _shouted_ , she had shaken him, tapped his face... she had even _hit_ him once to see if that would work, such had been her despair.

There had been no reaction from him, but that didn’t stop her from _hating_ herself for it...

“Come on, Lenin, you can’t give up like this... you still have to try out our food, remember?”, one of the twins by her son’s bedside told him.

“Yeah! Come on, pal... it’s not going to be so bad, we promise! You don’t have to bail on us like that... Well, you _could_ , but what about your mom over here?”

Despite her stress - or maybe because of it - she chuckled. It just seemed so _unreal_ : those guys used to be her son’s bullies, and now they were concerned about him - even _joking with him_ \- like they were all longtime friends. 

_Of course_ she hadn’t trusted them when those three came knocking on their door. And still they had dared to _insist_ on seeing Lenin, to say that they were wanting to turn over a new leaf and they’d become _friends_ with Lenin over the past day and expect her to _believe it all just like that_... it was an insult to her intelligence and wore her already nonexistent patience. 

Needless to say, things almost turned sour between them... but then they’ve brought up the dream they’ve had. 

And _that_ finally got her to listen to them.

“Look, Mrs. (...), you might not believe us, and we understand that you have every right not to, but... the reason why we’re all here today is because we’ve all had similar dreams about Lenin!” 

She froze then. “Dreams... about Lenin?”

“The details were a bit different, but he was always being attacked by something or in some kind of danger while he strived to do something to save himself. And you could pass it off as some ‘twins’ thing if _Harry_ here hadn’t had almost the same dream...”

She had been speechless. Any other day, that would have sounded like no more than a silly, desperate attempt to gain her trust... but the truth at that moment was that th _ey had had the same kind of dream as herself in the same day_.

The more she tried to think about it, the more she became unable to ignore what seemed to be genuine concern coming from their eyes... all that had to mean something.

“Lenin... he hasn’t even gotten out of bed today, has he?”

She gasped. It was uncanny how on the mark they all were, when they had no _business_ knowing all that about her son...

At that moment, another audible groan had come from upstairs. And when she looked at the other three, their faces seemed more pained than she’d ever expect to see them...

So it was that, partly because their story was just _too convincing_ to pass off as any kind of prank, no matter how elaborate, and partly out of _sheer desperation_ , she’d decided to give them the benefit of doubt for the time being... 

At least they hadn’t done anything to break what little trust she’d been forced to place on them so far... quite the contrary, to be honest. They had spent all that time by Lenin’s bedside, putting together their stories about the respective dreams they’ve all had about her son, helping her change Lenin’s wet towel for his fever every now and otherwise, keeping the two of them company. Being with other people that cared about Lenin was always refreshing to her... even if it was suspicious how suddenly those particular three seemed to have had a change of heart about him.

Well, it wasn’t like that would be enough for her to forgive them for what they did in the past, at any rate... but _maybe_ it could be a start. 

She would see. 

“I... Can’t...”

_He started mumbling again._

She flew to her son’s side, one of the twins quickly making room for her, and held his hand in both of hers. The others too rushed to gather around his bed then, worry seeming to overtake them as much as it did herself.

“Lenin?” The lioness was still terrified... _Just where was that ambulance?_ Despite everyone’s best efforts, Her boy’s condition never seemed to improve. His tossing and turning were worse than ever, and his fever just wouldn’t pass either. Even his voice was weaker, barely above a whisper now... at this rate...

“Am... I...”

And then, a tear fell from his son’s still shut eyes and his next words very nearly gave her a heart attack.

“Going to... die... here...?”


	6. Realization

The world around her froze. 

“Am... I... Going to... Die... Here...?”

Her heart pounded in her ears and she breathed hard, her body feeling numb and her head light. The lioness could barely make out the voices of Lenin’s colleagues, whether they murmured among themselves or called out to her son in vain... it was as if her mind had tuned out everything, trapping itself with the image of her boy writhing on the bed and one thought she had been striving to keep away at all costs.

_Lenin is going to die._

"Mrs. (...)?"

She couldn’t stand it. Her only son... the one person who had always been with her through all the scorn directed at them, even when she herself wavered and stopped as low as blaming him for it all... no matter how much she’d hurt him whenever she faltered...

“No, Lenin, don’t you give up on us! You _can’t_ let it end like this, you hear?”

“Lenin, no... Listen to me: _you’re not going to die!_ We’re all here for you...”

What would she do if that awful prospect came to pass...? What hope could she even have for this uncaring world if her Lenin who, despite his own failings and heartaches, had always had the courage to stand up and open his heart again and again in the face of it, was granted such a merciless death for all of his efforts...?

“Dammit! Is it too late? Haha... That can’t be true, can it?" The kid wearing a red shirt - Jackson, if she recalled correctly - looked at the others with a helpless expression, and was met with equally helpless expressions from them. "C-come on, what can we do? There has to be something...”

She had no answer to that. It was no use... Her son’s breathing was becoming more shallow, and its frequency also decreased. His face and body slowly relaxed, as if his life force was slowly fizzling away right in front of her eyes. She could feel it in her core... Lenin was losing the battle for his own life, and she could do nothing to help him in any way.

_Her son was dying and she couldn’t stand it!_

The single mother suddenly stood up and stepped away, unable to bear it anymore. It was horrific. She couldn’t bear to see the scene in front of her eyes, but she couldn’t look away either... she could feel herself about to faint, or _scream_ , or just about anything that could break her mind free... free from the horror and the pain consuming her... 

_Free..._

“Mrs. (...)!”

The lioness felt a hand on her arm, and that grim feeling building inside her was suddenly pushed back. 

She looked down at it, and noticed the shortest lion among them standing by her side and looking at her. He wore glasses and had a shaggy mane, and she didn’t recognize him as one of the locals... of course, all that meant was that he most likely lived some distance away from Samiga Village as far as she was concerned.

Nonetheless, he was standing there with her, his firm gaze belying his young age and providing a beacon of stability as her entire world threatened to crumble down before her...

“Just... just _breathe_ , okay?”

She struggled to do as she was told, the seconds ticking by as she strove to steady her breath once again...

She felt another hand on her other arm. This one belonged to one of the bullies, the one without a twin, having approached her as well. “Look, Mrs. (...), I know this whole thing seems out of this world and it’s completely terrifying but, uh... We’re all here! Lenin’s still here, too! It’s not over yet, right?!”

“T- That’s right!”, the shorter boy chimed in, putting as much confidence as he could into it even though his voice also quivered. “Let’s... just do what we can for now, and hope for the best!”

The adult lioness allowed them to sink into her as well, blinking away the tears pricking on the corners of her eyes and taking several deep, sharp breaths. The bespectacled lion didn't seem like a bully to her, and yet he was on such amicable terms with one of the bullies she did know. She could have thought that he really was an accomplice to them despite his appearance, or that he just wasn't in the know about them perhaps... but the way the bullies she did know seemed to have such a change of heart toward her son that day was gradually convincing her that their friendship was a sincere one... and might just have spurred the bully to want to reform.

Lenin’s bullies... were they really going to be ex-bullies now, then? Deep down, she _wanted_ to believe that from the bottom of her heart... And if it was true, she also hoped that Lenin would be _there_ to see it...

“I... have to... I can’t...” Lenin was mumbling again. The other three who were still at his bedside coaxed him right back.

" _That's it_ , Lenin! You can't give up!"

"We're all here waiting for you, Lenin! Come back to us!"

He was still _fighting_. Her son hadn’t given up! Even while dying, he was giving it everything he had...! And all of a sudden he had so many friends willing to stand by his side and help him...

She sighed. How could she have let herself falter like _that_? She was supposed to be an _adult_ , wasn't she? And yet there she was, letting the children carry the emotional burden on their own while she let herself fall apart... 

_Enough of that_! It was about time she did her part, too!

The bespectacled lion looked at her again. "Mrs. (...), have you called... I mean, I suppose you have called someone...?" 

The lioness jerked her head back at him. "Yes... I have, in fact, called an ambulance. When I called again, the nearest hospital claimed they were already on their way, but it's been almost an _hour_ already..." She had no idea where they could be, or if they would even be able to do something when they arrived at this point...

No, _stop_! She'd really better not go there anymore...

The boy frowned - she made a mental note of asking him his name later. "I see... I don't know if the hospital is that far or if they had some kind of delay... I guess all we can do is keep waiting."

The lioness nodded. No one knew when help would arrive, after all...

He suddenly looked down, appearing downcast. "I'm sorry I can't help more..."

"Don't say that, dear!" When he looked back up at her, the lioness shook her head at him. "You're helping plenty just being here now... I'm serious." It was almost funny, how the young boy was deprecating himself right after helping her snap out of her funk when her son was _still there_...

The least she could do was help him snap out of his own, right?

The young boy smiled back at her. For the time being, everything was up to those present in that small bedroom now, so they all had to do their best.

So the mother forced herself to stride back to where her ill son lied at last, kneeling by his side once again while the kids watched on with just as much expectation. 

They all knew that Lenin was fighting. All of them had seen it. If all she could do was stand by Lenin and hope he got through this safely, then that was what she’d do, no matter how _grueling_ it was! 

And yet, she found a small measure of relief. This wasn't the first time she had to renew that resolve... but it was the first time she had more people right there by her side.

And so, with renewed heart, the woman took her son's hand into hers once more. _She'd fight alongside him, to the bitter end_!

"Lenin!"

......................................................

Is this it...?

Lenin drifted off in the middle of the darkness, the dazzling light from before almost entirely covered by it - it seemed to overtake his surroundings the more his consciousness escaped him. The more he tried to gather his thoughts, the more they seemed to go away like sand between the fingers. The wind had almost stopped by then, but now he floated almost as if he was adrift in outer space... he was cold, it was _hard_ to breathe, and at this point staying awake as he floated aimlessly was all he could do...

**“HOPE... RUIN... DEATH... DIE...”**

Igzoc’s power seemed to have gone beyond even his own control, and Lenin had lost sight of him in the darkness. The only thing that remained was his voice, repeating words of demise...

_What could have he done wrong?_

He had overcome everything that had been holding him back - all those destructive states of mind originating from... he went to each place in what could only be described as his own inner realm and restored order and stability to each of them, and then went to the source of everything that had gone wrong in his life, and overcome every challenge.

And just when he thought he’d finally won... things ended up like this!

Did that mean... he’d really never had a chance to win, after all?

**“DEATH... TRUE... DEATH... LIBERATION...”**

The tears flowed freely down his face now, but he could barely feel them anymore. He felt more stupid and powerless than ever now... He’d faced his fears, and look where it had landed him... 

Now there was nothing he could do... and he would die there, all alone.

Really? 

Was he... going to... _die_... there? 

The thought seized his heart in a cold grip, but again, he could barely feel it anymore. 

Despite this, he chuckled. Maybe his very mind and soul were too tired of suffering and fighting in vain, and were just shutting down for good...

_“Don’t...!”_

A voice he could barely hear or identify called out to him. He was so tired... 

_“Can’t... let it end...”_

The last of his consciousness was already fading... What could they want from him anymore? He’d fought, and he’d lost...

Couldn’t they just leave him be once and for all? Staying awake only ever hurt...

_"I... have to... I can't..."_

Even the last of his fighting spirit was there, making noise and putting up a fight as it was wont to do... it didn't even feel like himself anymore, if it ever really was...

Every... one...

But he knew that thought wasn't true. He was used to ignoring it now... but deep down, he knew it still hurt. That it wasn't right.

He became more aware of the tears flowing down from his eyes once again, and they seemed to flow harder in turn. He knew... He wanted to go back to his mother and all his friends! He wanted to be free to do the things he loved! 

He wanted to live, without being held down by anything!

When he opened his eyes, they stung from all the crying and it felt so useless, for it was too dark for him to see anything at all...

But even through his smarting, unfocused eyes, he saw it. 

Floating above him, there was the faintest wisp of white light... It was so feeble, and yet there was something... special to it.

Yes... it was something precious. It warmed his heart, and made him forget all the pain and sadness for a little bit...

....................................................................

"Oh, look!" Jackson leaned over a bit closer to Lenin. "He seems to be calming down!"

The lioness gasped. It seemed to be true! Lenin began to breathe a little deeper again, and he didn't seem to be tossing and turning as much. When she put her hand on his forehead to check his temperature once more, it even felt like his fever might have gone down the slightest bit.

Could it be that... _her moral support was actually doing something to help him?_

She called for her son again. “Lenin?”

This time, she felt his hand twitch in her grasp. 

“Mom...”

Everyone else in the room gasped. Lenin was responding!

The mother’s eyes stung anew, more tears threatening to fall out. She squeezed his hand, calling out to her son again. “Yes, Lenin, it’s me! I’m here... _I’m right here!_ ”

Her son shuddered. His hand weakly gripped hers. 

“I’m... scared...” 

Her son’s shaken voice certainly matched his feelings, and she had to gulp down the lump in her own throat. “I know, son. I know. I’m scared too... but I’m still here, okay? We’ll get through this... together!”

The other kids seemed to be encouraged by Lenin’s slightly improved condition too. Jackson stepped in: “We’re right here, Lenin! We’ll never leave you all alone again!”

Edward nodded at him, then turned to Lenin. “That’s right, Lenin! You were such a good friend to me, even though we’ve just met yesterday... I want to have the chance to be a good friend to you, too!”

Oh. So they’d just met the day prior... The lioness wondered if that meant he was a new student at school, then. The way he talked about it did suggest as much...

“Guys...” Lenin was responding more, and becoming more relaxed in turn. 

The boy named Harry seemed at a loss for words, but still offered some. “Uh... We’re here too, Lenin... and we’re _changing now_ , and it’s all thanks to you! You _can’t_ give up on us now of all times, okay?”

The twins were also acting meeker than usual. “You... still gotta try our food! Don’t forget it!”

“Look forward to it, alright? We’ll make it worth your while...”

Even her son’s bullies - or ex-bullies, as it may be now - seemed to have a positive effect on her son, who relaxed a little more in the bed, and mumbled back at them:

“Yeah...”

The lioness gave the three of them a forlorn look. Everything was indicating that they were telling the truth about wanting to make amends with her son, and turn over a new leaf. And even if she would still have to see things through to the end, she sincerely hoped they managed to pull through on that... not only for Lenin’s sake, but for their own too.

Nonetheless, she addressed her unconscious but responsive son again. “See, Lenin? We’re all here...”

Lenin actually sobbed, and it was all she could do to not start sobbing right back.

“Every... one...”

.....................................................................

Lenin was now fully aware of the tears in his eyes, sobbing uncontrollably while the sadness wracked his body. The one wisp of light had become several surrounding him, each one resonating with the others and making the albino more aware of their voices reaching out to him... They were all there for him, giving him hope and courage whenever he faltered against his greatest inner enemy, again and again.

He felt downright ashamed to think he had almost thrown the towel, and yet that feeling was subdued by an immense one of relief. He was hurting, all the way to the bottom of his heart, but being aware of those feelings also made him more aware and focused....

So once again, Lenin began to force himself awake, wiping his tears and catching his breath, making the most out of the small, comforting presence of his loved ones in the middle of the oppressive, all-encompassing darkness. He’d have to face it the same way he did everything else, if he wanted to be free from it...

_What had he done wrong?_

It was time to find out. 

When he had managed to calm his own nerves enough, he looked around - however, beyond himself and the light around him, there was only darkness in every direction... and there was not a trace of Isaac’s body either...

Could it mean that... _the entire darkness was Igzoc now?_

**“DIE... END...”**

That was a _terrifying_ thought, and it filled his entire body with dread... but if he ever wanted the pain to end, he’d have to face it. As Igzoc had said himself, that darkness was Lenin’s own self-hatred and despair - he could _feel it_ in every word chanted by the crazed entity, and it _hurt_ , but if he ever wanted to stop the pain and light up the darkness, he’d have to face it!

As if responding to that thought, the dark void surrounding him seemed to light up weakly, tinting the air with a shade of silver. 

Lenin looked around, anticipation making his heart race. _Did he do it_...?

However, not long after, the light faded, and the pitch-black darkness returned to its previous state... 

The albino’s shoulders sagged, and he let out the breath he hadn’t noticed he’d been holding. So _that_ wasn’t enough, as it turned out... but it seemed to have some effect.

**“WHY... WON’T... YOU... DIE...”**

Igzoc’s voice, which had faded then, was back inside his head. There had to be something else... _He was so close_...

Lenin groaned in frustration. Isaac never changed, even as Igzoc, did he? _Why_ did the other lion have to treat him like this? Why did _he_ end up treating _himself_ like that?

_He was tired of being treated like trash..._

The void around him lighted up again, and black stars could be seen across the horizon this time. But it seemed dulled this time, and soon enough it had faded right back into black once again - except that this time, the sense of oppression from before came back with it, though not as heavy as it had once been...

**“DIE... LET’S... DIE...”**

Lenin sighed, trying to calm his nerves. Standing up against the unfairness of his situation was an important part of the process, true... but pushing everyone away would make him no different from the Bad Boy he’d turned down. He’d avoided other people’s contact for way too long, so he could understand that isolating himself one way or another wouldn’t do him any good in the end.

He didn’t want to go down that path ever again. It could be scary at times, and tiresome too, but he wanted to keep approaching the people around him, and for that, he had to learn how to understand, how to accept, even how to forgive...

_Starting with himself_.

Lenin's eyes widened as he realized...

.......................................................

“I hate the color of my fur!”

_The blue-tinted room with the simple decorations and the comfortable couch had never really succeeded in its intended effect of making him feel calm and safe, no matter how many times he’d been to Serena’s therapy room for his weekly consultations - and that day in particular, his mood was even more sour than usual._

_Isaac and his friends had crossed the limits this time. It wasn’t anything special - just a painting of a different flower he had seen near the clinic, unlike any he’d ever seen before, which he’d planned to present as his next Arts assignment... except the flower happened to be the same color as himself._

_Lenin had decided to not let that get to him... and he regretted that now. For he’d later found the painting he’d left to dry with words from Isaac, written in his unmistakable crude handwriting with pitch-black ink:_

**_“Poisonous lily of the valley, nobody wants that in their garden... It’s so you! Good job, freak!”_ **

_A little internet research was enough to confirm it. The species, its toxicity and how invasive it was... The lily of the valley was as hindering to the village’s famous rose gardens as Lenin himself seemed to be to the community._

_He shoved the whole thing into the trash and left the school early of his own accord, unable to even bring himself to show up the following days..._

_“Lenin...”, Serena tried when the boy’s sobbing had calmed enough. “You don’t_ have _to see things that way, you know! You said you’ve researched about lilies of the valley after that... didn’t it say anything_ good _about them?”_

_Lenin sniveled. “It did. They’re delicate, fragrant, can be used to compliment bouquets...”_

_“See? It’s not all bad...”_

_“Not bad? Don’t you see that he’s_ right _?” The albino buried his head into his palms again. “It doesn’t_ matter _what’s good about me, all they’ll ever going to see in me is the_ bad stuff _\- they just want me_ away _! Isaac and his gang bullies me all the time, the others don’t even_ care _\- they all just treat me with disdain, if they even give me the time of day!”_

_He was weeping now, his voice muffled by his hands still covering his face. “I’m just so sick of trying to find my place here, and all this because I was born_ white _like a freaking ghost... f only I had been born the right color... Or not at all...”_

_He heard the psychologist sigh deeply. “Lenin, please... calm down and look at me.”_

She _had to be tired of him as well - of all his whining throughout those consultations... Nonetheless, he struggled to do as he had been told, even if it took him a couple of minutes before he was able to face her again._

_“Now listen... This is very,_ very _important. The most important thing you can ever learn in your life.” Her eyes emanated kindness, despite what he’d just thought of her. Combined with her words, it was enough to push back the feeling of inadequacy, at least for the time being. “Even if no one else sees your value, it doesn’t mean it’s not there.”_

_“But...”_

_“Believe me.” The psychologist clearly would have none of that, it seemed. “Everyone grows complacent to things being the way they are, and they tend to not really bother looking past their own little world for different ways to see it or do something to change it... and the same goes for you.”_

_Lenin blinked. “Me?”_

_“_ You _”, she confirmed in a completely casual tone. “Don’t you prefer to keep to yourself, keeping social contact at a minimum? Wouldn’t you rather paint, play music or write all alone, without anyone bothering you?”_

_The albino looked down in deep thought. “I... guess? What of it?”_

_“Nothing... you just won’t have much chance to make any real friends that way, don’t you think?”_

_He eyed the psychologist. His mouth opened, eager to retort with something... only for it to close again, with no good reply coming to his mind._

_Serena went on talking, probably knowing he really had nothing to say. “It’s a pretty difficult situation - people are prejudiced against you due to your albinism, and then, when you avoid them, you only give them more room to interpret you as a reclusive person. And it’s even worse when you actively do something that can drive them away - that’s when they will stick to their perception that you’re a ‘weirdo’, a ‘recluse’, ‘antisocial’ and so on... That’s a vicious cycle, right there: they push you away, you push them away... and_ you _end up alone.”_

_The boy trembled. It was painful to admit... but she might have a point._

_“But it doesn’t have to be like that”, she finally added. “You can change the way you deal with people! You can be more patient with them, and let them closer to you as long as they’re not being disrespectful.” Serena tapped her chin in thought. “Start slow and steady: ask a colleague for notes, try engaging in some conversation when you have nothing else to do - even if it’s small talk...”_

_“But what if they treat me like I’m some busybody trying too hard to fit in?“ Lenin shook his head. “W- What if they laugh at me, or look down on me again, or...?”_

_“You can’t make them think differently, Lenin.” This time it was Serena who shook her head at him. “All you can do is change what_ you _do_ , _and hope they see you in a better light from there... which is entirely up to them.”_

_But then, she smiled at him. “But you know what? Just making the decision to change your life for the better and acting on it, looking for a better way to deal with your lot in life, already makes you a pretty brave hero. Even if everyone else underrates it, well... most people value more trivial things than what’s really important - you already know that, don’t you?”_

_The boy nodded slowly. Most of his classmates, he noted, seemed to take for granted the things he so dearly missed - things like acknowledgement, understanding, concern and trust - or otherwise strove for completely superfluous stuff like top grades, sports and dates as a way to attain those things... and in the end they never seemed quite satisfied with what they had, always craving for more and more. Even though he himself craved the same things just as much, Lenin sometimes had to question how well their methods actually worked for them... and whether he himself would find them worth it if he ever had the same chance._

_“I do... I get it.”_

_“There you go, then.” Serena nodded right back at him, sounding pleased with his answer. “Having that kind of understanding about humanity is no small feat, Lenin. You already know you won’t find true happiness there - it only exists beyond such comfort zone. And that’s why just looking for happiness the right way already makes you a special kind of hero -_ your own _greatest hero!”_

_Lenin stared at her in cautious disbelief, even as he blushed a little - “his own greatest hero” couldn't be farther from how he felt about himself. And he didn’t feel exactly assured to think that people might never acknowledge him no matter how hard he tried either..._

_Still, there was no easy way to happiness for him, was there? Maybe he should keep looking for the true happiness Serena spoke of._

_He probably should try, at least..._

...............................................

Lenin felt a cold grip in his chest, the chill spreading from there through his body. To his great shame, it still took him almost a month to even gather the courage to come out of his bedroom, right after what had been supposed to be a turning point for the better...

Even so, his consultations with Serena - and especially that last talk - seemed to be finally starting to pay off. The darkness around him had turned back into something resembling the beautiful silvery fog from before Iczog snapped on him... and though it wasn’t as bright as the bursts of light from before, it wasn’t being quickly consumed by the darkness like those either. 

Deep down, he felt he was finally understanding why. He hadn’t understood very well what Serena had meant back then, but now he knew he was beginning to.

_“We’re here for you...”_

_“Don’t give up...”_

A painful warmth filled the albino’s soul as the words of encouragement he’d heard before drifted back into his awareness, more real than ever. He had to understand, accept and forgive... his mother, his new friends... and most of all, _himself_. 

It was like his mind was finally achieving the clarity it always needed - the more he thought about it, the more he understood, and the more certain he became about it. He had to forgive not only other people for whenever they’d mistreated him, but also himself for whenever he’d responded poorly to them, warranted or not, and retracted himself into his own shell as consequence. He had to understand that they were all... only _human_ \- so ignorant and easy to upset that they stepped all over each other’s feelings all the time... and understanding that was the only way to learn how to avoid making the same mistakes, and thus break the cycle of suffering.

**“It... hurts...”**

As the world around him became ever clearer, Lenin turned his attention back to Igzoc... and felt that he could even understand even him now, as he took responsibility over himself. He’d doubted his own self-worth! He’d let hatred and despair consume him! He’d blamed everyone else for his own plight when... no matter how inconsiderate or downright horrible some of them were to him throughout his life... it had been entirely up to whether he’d deal with them in a healthy or toxic way.

He’d made some very bad choices in his life, indeed... and then he failed to own up to them. And Igzoc... he was nothing but a reflection of all that.

**“I... can’t take it... anymore...”**

Suddenly, Isaac’s body reformed about half a mile away from Lenin... but its form seemed unstable, though in a different way from before. It was bleached, and he was beginning to look like someone else... and he seemed in pain, clutching his own head - just like when he was going berserk.

Lenin understood now... Igzoc wasn’t really Isaac at all - what appeared to him as “Isaac” was just a false form. Most likely, Lenin’s own subconscious had projected the image of the real person who had been his worst enemy from his daily life, the one he’d resented the most over the years, upon the parts of himself he’d refused to acknowledge in his inner reality... 

And Lenin’s pain was his own. Had always been...

It made way too much sense to not be true... And now that he knew the truth deep in his soul, he was sure that Iczog’s true form would emerge any moment now.

Lenin’s heart felt a different kind of pain to acknowledge that - the kind of soft, bittersweet pain that signaled things would become truly okay soon... slowly, he willed himself to float toward “Isaac’s” adrift body...

“Stay... away...”

Iczog’s voice now sounded so much more human, and much more hurt, than it ever did before. But Lenin wouldn’t heed his request. He would go to Igzoc and he would put an end to everything. For the sake of them both. 

“Don’t come... near... me!”

Naturally, the entity would do anything in its power to drive him away, and so an invisible force was applied onto the albino’s body, trying to force him back... It hurt his injured, weary body, but Lenin just kept moving forward. 

“Stop...!”

No, he _wasn’t_ going to stop! For the sake of his - their - happiness, _never again would he relent_!

The air around them had acquired a bright silver hue, peppered with little black stars, more beautiful than even the one from when he’d defeated Hopelessness. Lenin was now mere feet away from his so-called innermost enemy. 

He stretched out both hands to him...

“ICZOG!!!”

The world turned even brighter - almost becoming white, just like when he saw his loved ones helping him through his fight. Iczog gave him such a broken look that it hurt to see...

**“You...!”**

A barely audible whisper now, his voice sounded even more broken, if that was possible. Thoroughly bleached out, his false form had almost completely dissipated, and there was no longer any doubts left about his true identity. Lenin closed in on him...

“I’M RIGHT HERE!”

And with arms wound firmly around the other’s torso, he secured him in a tight embrace. 

The world around them flashed a blinding white one final time... and without even looking, Lenin sensed the last of Iczog’s false form vanishing. 

“It’s okay... Everything is going to be okay now...”

He felt the other trembling in his embrace, and trembled himself. Slowly, very slowly, he noticed him reaching up behind his back, attempting to return the hug but not quite tightening it, as if hesitating...

“I don’t know how to say this to you, but... I'm _sorry_... I’m so sorry... for everything.”

After a long moment, Iczog finally tightened his arms around Lenin’s own body. He trembled harder, and Lenin could hear a few sobs...

**“I... am...”**

“No... you’re not." Lenin gently pushed the other’s head into the crook of his own neck, his own tears beginning to fall as well. "I’m sorry I ever made you think you were...”

He felt Igzoc freeze in his arms and heard his breath catch. 

“You’ll never be forced to think that again, I promise...”, Lenin cooed the other one. His own voice was croaked, but he had to keep talking - he _owed_ him that much, after everything that had happened between the . “We had to go to hell and crawl back out, but... I’ve finally learned... my lesson.”

Finally, Iczog held on tight to Lenin, and allowed himself to wail into his shoulder. Lenin just closed his eyes and held him back, feeling his own tears soaking his own face as well as Igzoc’s own soaking his shoulder... Their pain, their suffering, all of their grief was being poured out in that moment... All this time, they were one and the same. 

“It’s okay... I’m here... I’ll never turn my back on you again...”

They stayed like that for what felt like hours, floating amid the bright, comforting whiteness that encompassed the entire area... Slowly, gradually, he felt Igzoc relax in his embrace and heard his wails devolve into sobs and whimpers... which then became even breathing... and as he calmed down, Lenin’s own hatred and despair was finally, finally being placated.

**"Thank... you..."** , he whispered at last. A few moments of silence after, Lenin realized he had fallen asleep in his embrace...

The albino pulled back from their hug, at long last chancing a look at Igzoc’s true form - and saw it was exactly what he’d been expecting: a carbon copy of himself, from the tip of his toe down to the last strand of hair, carrying an air of weariness and vulnerability he wouldn’t have expected to see from his innermost demon... and yet, there was now a rare feeling of peace emanating from him as well.

Lenin smiled at the sleeping form in his arms... in the end, no matter how much anyone else might have contributed, _he_ had done this to himself... All the accusations he’d received from Igzoc and his subordinates were true in the end, but now, he was able to make peace with himself over it, take due responsibility and finally leave all the suffering behind...

And true enough, Iczog’s form started to become immaterial under his touch, and before his eyes too it disintegrated, as if returning to the white void where it originally belonged... and then, the whiteness around him started fading as well - or rather, his body seemed to be absorbing it. 

Lenin couldn’t help but smile in relief. Darkness turned back into light, and the light went back into him... that, too, felt right. It gave him an immense sense of relief like he’d never felt before.

As the light faded, the horizon returned to its previous silvery state peppered with little black stars, and when the albino looked down, he didn’t see the grass from before... but instead he saw a _vast field of white roses_ , sprawling as far in every direction as his eye could see from his vantage point miles above it. 

_It was... beautiful. There were no words...!_

It would have brought tears to his eyes, had they not been overflowing with them already. Lenin was just glad that he’d found the true beauty inside himself...

And finally, after all the efforts he'd made, and all the grief he went through, the soreness and exhaustion caught up to him. His eyelids fluttered shut almost immediately, and for once in his life - hopefully the first time of many to come - Lenin drifted into unconsciousness in true peace...


	7. Restoration

_It had been a long, grueling journey._

_To reach Iczog, he had to power through all those dark feelings consuming him all this time. To overcome Iczog, the source of those feelings, Lenin had to see him for who he truly was..._

_And the truth had been as agonizing as it had been liberating._

"Lenin..."

The albino felt himself drifting into awareness... 

"Lenin!"

There were two different voices calling for him. He noticed he was on his feet, even though he had just regained consciousness... but then, each travel to a new part of the Realm, except the first one, had ended that way, so it was nothing new to him.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, needing to blink a few times until his sight got used to the brightness of the place he found himself in. As his vision came into focus, he saw he was back at the place where he had first met with Esty, the Mecha-Deer, the strange void filled with fog that constantly changed colors, peppered with black stars floating all around - except now, the fog had settled into a faint white, and the black stars turned bluish-white as well, bright enough to be seen through the fog. 

It was beautiful... but Lenin only had eyes for the two Sovereigns right in front of him. 

"Lenin..." Esty stood a couple feet away from Lenin, with Zurergo by his side. "You did it!" Both Sovereigns were giving him looks full of emotion - concern, grief, relief... The perfect mirrors to his own tangle of feelings. 

Except they were broken. By his own hand.

Flashes of a wolf and a deer calling out to him, attempting to reason with him, which only annoyed him...

The same wolf and deer struggling and ultimately being crippled - crushed by his power - and forced to retreat...

A hyena, a sheep, an elephant, a shrew and a peacock corrupted by darkness and made to drag the Realm into it with them...

He didn't remember exactly how it went, but what little he did remember was enough to have his eyes welling up with tears once again.

"Zurergo... Esty..." Lenin finally willed himself to take a step forward. And then another. The two Mechas also stepped forward, and as soon as they were all at arms' length from each other, they each carefully placed a hand on either of the albino's shoulders while he had stopped himself, trembling, barely able to look the two of them in the eye through the tears...

“I...” I'm so sorry, he wanted to tell them. I'm sorry I let the hate and rejection get to me... I'm sorry I lashed out at myself and brought chaos upon the Realm... I'm so sorry I broke you two! 

Ultimately, all he managed to choke out through the tears was:

"I'm sorry... for everything..."

Suddenly, he felt Zurergo and Esty tugging him in, and he went willingly, wrapping his arms around the two and pulling them close, feeling their arms wrapping around him right back in response. He leaned his head on their joined shoulders, let the tears and sobs fall down where they may... and just like that, he gave in to the comfort they offered. In a way, he realized then, he was a prodigal son, reuniting with his estranged guardians after a very long time being lost and lonely... and instead of berating him, they just forgave him and accepted him back.

Lenin hadn't known how much he'd missed them, and they probably had missed him just as much...

After several moments, Lenin felt relaxed enough to break off their little group hug. He wiped off the last of his tears, and noticed that Zurergo and Esty were doing the same... yet more evidence of the emotion of the moment.

And then they were facing each other again.

"Thank you... for not giving up on me."

The two Sovereigns smiled at him warmly, so warmly, that it made him feel warm and safe. "Thank you, Lenin... for coming back to us, and to yourself."

“We always believed in you... in your potential, and your desire for victory.”

Afterwards, they straightened up at last, the Mecha-Wolf lazily crossing his arms while the Mecha-Deer once again took hold of his staff (which, he noticed, had been standing upright on its own... huh). They were smiling at Lenin, and the albino couldn’t help but smile right back. To think those two had believed so fiercely, even after he'd failed them and done them so much harm... that he was worth saving... Even the fog and stars around them seemed to shine brighter, as if resonating with their newfound joy... 

“Now, Lenin... What are you going to do?”

Zurergo's simple question shook him to the core. Lenin took a deep breath to steady himself, the same rush of anticipation from the beginning of this journey to meet the Sovereign Triad flowing through him - still feeble, still slightly tainted with fear, but stronger than ever before and steadily growing inside his heart. There was nothing left to be discussed about the past - all three of them understood it well enough. He had descended into madness and despair, and had needed a lot of time, effort and especially help - from outside and within - to find his way back and fix the mess he’d made of himself, before he truly lost everything... 

“All I know”, he said, looking Zurergo and Esty straight in the eyes, “-is that I don’t want what happened here to happen to us ever again.” He put a hand on his chest, mustered all the determination that had helped him achieve this victory. "I want true, everlasting peace - for myself, and for this Realm!"

That much he knew, even if he didn't know what the future had in store for him.

Zurergo tilted his head at him, his gentle expression unchanging. "Indeed... That is what we devote our lives to - this Realm's peace. That is to say, your peace, Lenin."

"And true peace", Esty added, "can only be maintained with wisdom. The wisdom you obtained from your experiences - both good and bad." His expression hardened a bit. "So do not forget, Lenin. Accept the pain of the past you've learned - do not give in to it... but embrace it. Only then you can heal it with the light of your soul."

The light of his soul... It sounded very poetic, when they put it like that. 

Zurergo then held up a finger at him, his own expression bearing a similar edge of seriousness. "Do not force yourself, however. Whether you are walking toward the future, or looking back on your past... take your own time. Do what you can, and then let life take care of the rest." 

Lenin paused, brow furrowed in thought. Between fear and recklessness, he had seen for himself how tough a balancing act life was already. Maybe it would never get any easier... But Zurergo and Esty wouldn’t trust him with this if they didn’t believe in him, would they?

That gave him confidence. It helped him believe he would be fine, no matter what, as long as he believed in himself. 

"I understand.” He nodded at the two of them, even managing a little smile despite of the uncertainties ahead of him.

The two Sovereigns mirrored his confident smile. And then the air in that place began to shift, the thick fog around them dissipating...

“The journey to find yourself is far from over, Lenin.”

The two Sovereigns then turned back to look at the fog behind them. It glowed brighter than before, even as it cleared away... until it had mostly receded to the background, revealing the Sovereign Triad’s thrones only a few feet from them.

Then they both looked back at Lenin. 

“Now, the central throne is unoccupied, and you may retake your rightful place on it”, Zurergo informed him. “Our voices shall pass on to you unobstructed, pondered by you through rationality... all as it should be.”

Lenin gulped, but didn’t look away from the throne, looming in front of him, as if calling for him. He knew it was what he was meant to do, from the bottom of his heart...

“You must return home now.” Esty motioned toward his throne. “Spread the word about what you learned here. Apply those lessons in your life and make yourself an example. That way, you’ll move toward a future where ‘Isaac’ shall never be a threat again.”

‘Isaac’... He couldn’t be talking about the real Isaac - Zurergo and Esty had set him up to face himself with all his flaws, and take responsibility for his own fate. Blaming another person just went contrary to that. No... just like the sheep used ‘Prov’ to refer to a number of things, the Mecha-Deer must be using ‘Isaac’ to refer to the distortion that had caused all this mess... what the outside world called depression, in other words.

He didn't wish that for anyone. Ever. If there was a future where it was fully overcome, like Esty envisioned, that was where he wanted to be.

He’d create that future if he had to.

Slowly, he walked forward, passing Zurergo and Esty by, his eyes fixed on the throne he had to assume. As he approached the throne's foot, however, he noticed the obvious - It was too large for him. The seat was higher up than he was tall, higher up than he'd ever grow up to be. 

He stopped right at the throne's foot, unsure of what to do. There was no way he'd be able to get up on it by himself... but then, Zurergo and Esty had come to his side, the Mecha-Wolf putting a hand on his shoulder, an understanding grin on his face. 

"A little help?"

And Lenin realized that he didn't have to.

"Yes, please."

Sure enough, when the two Sovereigns hoisted him up by his ribcage - firmly, yet so carefully, like parents would lift their small child - he was able to reach the seat. After some struggling to pull himself up, and adjust himself on the throne, he was properly seated. 

At that moment, he felt a surge of power coursing through him, filling him with awareness and vitality. It was like he could see right through the fog and the stars, though they hadn't left his field of vision... And then, he looked back at Zurergo and Esty, who had stepped away from the throne to face him. Their smiles were full of pride, and they made Lenin feel like he could be someone worthy of such pride...

"The Sovereign Triad is hereby restored."

Zurergo and Esty's unison declaration shocked Lenin as it echoed through the void and beyond... But then, the shock passed, and the albino smiled in approval. He felt their power resonating with him and reaching far, far out to every corner of their Realm, and every individual they were responsible for... a declaration of a new age for all of them.

"Now, go", Esty urged him. "And remember: when you exist in the outside world as 'Lenin', you rule this Realm as 'Iczog'. That is your true nature..."

Lenin nodded at him, the sense of responsibility weighing on his mind. Every act and decision in his daily life affected his Realm correspondingly... He had to be most careful from now on.

"Do not fear." Zurergo held out a hand toward him, as if reading his mind. "We will always be with you. All of us..."

All of them... Of course! 

The albino smiled down at Zurergo and Esty, full of gratitude. As long as he remembered not only those two, but everyone else who had helped him find his way back to himself, he knew there was nothing he couldn't face.

He was never alone.

And at last, carrying their wishes for the future with him, he closed his eyes and willed himself awake, feeling his fellow Sovereigns and their throne room slip out of awareness...

..............................................................................................................................

Are... sure?"

"Positive... saw him mov..."

So many voices... What was happening?

"Blimey, he's really waking up!"

"Ssshh!!"

Lenin’s eyes fluttered open.

When his vision cleared, he realized he was looking up at the ceiling of his bedroom - he was laying on his bed, back at home. 

How...?

"Lenin...? Son?" His mother’s voice called from right beside him, 

Carefully, he sat up on the bed with her help, his body feeling heavy and feverish, and looked at her. She had her eyes red-rimmed and her expression concerned. Then he looked around at... Edward, Jackson, Harry, and the twins, Antony and Leandro... a little too many eyes on him for comfort. Especially in the privacy of his bedroom.

“Guys...? What are you all doing here?"

None of them said anything, they just looked back at him - looks of concern, of care, like he'd once thought he'd never see from anyone his age. 

But it was still a very unusual situation.

"Lenin..." Mom called him once again, reaching up for his face but stopping herself inches away. "Are you okay?"

The albino blinked at her, taking her hand into his. "Why, yes, Mom, I am okay", he said quizzically. More okay than he had felt in years, really, though he also felt a bit sick... and the tension between the small group conspicuously present in his bedroom and himself was piling up - they just kept staring at him. 

Lenin swallowed a lump in his throat. "Did... something happen to make you all think I'm not?"

Something had to have happened. They wouldn't all have come here watch him in his sleep for no reason... right?

"Yes, son... something did happen. You may find it... hard to believe, but..." His mother shuddered, her voice uneven. "You were..." She looked frazzled, and it made his heart ache for her. He squeezed her hand in an attempt to offer comfort, and it seemed to calm her down a bit, at least.

"We all had bad dreams, Lenin." Edward spoke in Mom’s behalf when it was clear she couldn't. "Real bad dreams. About you."

Lenin gasped at him, and then he looked around at everyone in the room, eyes widening and mouth agape. 

They had all dreamed of him. Right when he was off facing Iczog... Could it be that...?

"It was terrifying", one of the twins said, barging into the conversation. "Some of us saw you being hit by fire, some saw you running away from ice, or beaten black and blue by a floating staff... either way, we were all freaked out."

"When Leandro and I woke up, we found out we’d had the same dream”, the other twin - Antony - completed. “And then we just knew something wasn’t right... so we came over right away."

Lenin looked down, thoughts racing faster than Iczog had made him run. And there was no way to deny it - they had seen the fight... but how? So far, his adventures in his inner Realm had been real for him, and him alone...

Wait a moment - he saw them in his dream, too. Whenever he cleared one of Iczog’s trials... did that mean he was seeing the real people at those times?

"And then, we got here..." Harry moved in closer, looking Lenin in the eyes. "You were tossing and turning in your bed, and nothing we did woke you up. According to your mother, by the time we've gotten here, it had been over an hour you've been like that, and now-" He checked his phone for the time. "-it's been nearly three!"

Three hours. He suddenly became very much aware of the sun, hanging high up on the sky outside his window, confirming that they had to be well into the morning now. So it had been three hours since his mother first noticed him unconscious in his bed... he could well imagine how they must have felt when the hours went by and he didn’t wake up and... and... 

"We were all afraid, Lenin.” Jackson said it first. “For all we knew, you could have died right here, in front of us, and we wouldn’t have been able to do anything." And then he looked down, shoulders hunched, his face scrunched up - a far cry from the upbeat, if secretly insecure guy he’d only just gotten to know better...

A heavy silence fell on the room. Lenin's mind scrambled for a way to fix the situation, or at least make it better. It broke his heart to think he had worried them all so much, and that they had felt so powerless to help him... when that couldn’t be farther away from the truth.

That seemed like a good way to start. 

“That’s not true!”

The others looked back up at him in shock. He didn’t look away from them.

“You were all there with me”, he told them. “From start to finish. Whenever I faltered, whenever I felt like I would lose, you were there with me.” He made a point to look around at each one of them. “You all gave me strength... and I wouldn’t have made it if you weren’t there for me.”

His mother and friends gasped, and exchanged worried glances among themselves.

“So it was real...” That was all Mom could say.

Lenin tugged his mother closer by the hand he was holding, then let go to wrap his arm around her back, while she wrapped hers around his shoulders. “I’m so sorry that I made you worry about me like that. And...” He hesitated for a moment, but decided to go for it. “Yes. I could have died in there.”

This time, they grimaced. His heart went out to them - that was rubbing salt on the wound, he knew... but he really thought it better to let them know now, than have the truth come back to bite them later.

“But hey - I’m okay, now!” He made himself as clear and unequivocal as he could. “I won. I figured out what the problem was, I dragged myself out of it, and I’m not letting it hold me back again!"

His mother and friends... didn't seem quite reassured by that. Actually, they apparently went right back to concerned... but at least they didn't look so defeated anymore.

"Look... I'm going to tell you exactly what happened in there, okay?" Lenin held up his hands. "What you actually saw, what happened after... and how I made it back." They still seemed rather uneasy, but he still hoped their fears and worries would be put to rest when he told them everything. 

Yes, he was perfectly aware of how awkward he'd feel - opening up about his issues had never been easy. But if it gave them peace of mind, after the worry he'd caused them... And besides, Lenin thought, smiling comfortingly at them, he did kind of owe them the truth, now that they had taken part in the story...

But then, a siren sounded in the distance. Everyone in the room turned their heads in the direction the sound came from, as the sound grew ever louder, joined by the sound of a motor... as if the car it belonged to was coming to his house.

"Is that an...?"

Mom looked at him. "Yes, son, it's an ambulance. It's not like I could just leave you unconscious and writhing on the bed without trying to do anything, you know." She looked back at the direction of the front door, as the siren had become the loudest and the sound of screeching tires indicated the vehicle had stopped. And frowned. "Took them long enough, really..."

Lenin said nothing to that. He'd have done the same thing, had it been his mother in his place, wouldn't he?

"I'll be right back!" She stood up, and left the room, the sound of her steps fading as she went downstairs...

Once they were alone, Harry suddenly whispered out to the others. "Hey, guys! This is bad..." 

Antony and Leandro seemed worried themselves, but Edward and Jackson just looked at him confused. "What is bad?", the basketball player asked.

"We're not supposed to be here!" Harry was sweating, Lenin noticed. "The entire neighborhood must have noticed the ambulance out there. They will see us, and then we are busted! What are we going to do?"

Lenin's stomach dropped. It had completely flown over his head... of course, if they were there with him, it meant they were skipping school! And now, they were going to get in trouble because of him...

"Calm down, Harry!" Antony looked... surprisingly calm, even as he gripped Harry by the shoulders. "You know what? I don't regret coming here at all. Lenin needed us, and now he's okay. So what if we end up on detention after that?"

Lenin needed us. Something about Leandro being thoughtful of him suddenly warmed his heart...

Leandro didn't seem to share his sibling's confidence, though. "Um, Antony... this could end up a bit worse for us."

Antony eyed him. "What do you mean?"

Leandro actually seemed more anxious than Harry. "I don't regret coming here either, mind, but look at it this way: an ambulance was called for Lenin, and we were right here! Won't people think we were the ones who did something bad enough to him that an ambulance was needed?"

Lenin's stomach had dropped even before Leandro had finished talking and Antony's face fell, having no answer to that. Things were going from bad to worse... just the previous day, those three were his bullies, and for all people likely knew, they still were. He figured that they might have to face the consequences of their actions someday, but that... that was unfair. 

Wasn't there anything he could do?

But then Jackson, who had stayed quiet the whole time, spoke up. 

"Come on, guys!" The jock had his game face on, the face of pure, razor-sharp focus that had brought him and the school’s basketball team victory after victory. "You know what you did today, and so do we. If anyone accuses you of something you didn’t really do, it only means they don’t know anything."

Harry, Antony and Leandro looked at him like he had grown a second head. Lenin himself wasn't expecting it... though it also looked like the best they could do, if it came to that. 

But the surprises weren't over - Edward was next.

"And don’t worry, the rest of us can all vouch for you!" The transfer student adjusted his glasses, looking much more determined himself. "You guys want to turn over a new leaf with Lenin... and we're going to help you have that chance!"

The three bullies said nothing still, staring from one of them to the other. At least they seemed to be relaxing, though.

Jackson eyed them pointedly. "After everything that happened, you still are going to do that... aren't you?"

Lenin kept quiet himself, watching the whole thing play out in awe. Harry, Antony, Leandro, Jackson and Edward all being civil to each other, the bullies being on his side and Jackson and Edward vowing to have their backs, and just like that, what had looked like a serious problem suddenly didn’t seem so bad... 

Leandro opened his mouth to say something, but Harry beat him to it. "Yes..." The bully gave Lenin a quick glance, and in that brief moment the albino saw an incredibly contrite expression... and then he turned that look on Jackson. "We're done harassing Lenin. Never again."

Harry seemed so resolute on that... And Antony and Leandro didn't seem to oppose it either. "We're just going to tease him and yank his leg every now and then..."

"But, you know, just like good friends do to each other."

The two of them said that so simply, so naturally... Friends...

To him, seeing all that was... it was...

"And besides, we don’t even know if Lenin will have to be removed yet, or if the paramedics will tell on us. We should wait and see what they will say about... Lenin?"

Oh!

Jackson was looking at him with worry. The others too seemed worried when they followed his gaze and looked at him... and that was when Lenin realized it himself - he was crying.

"What's wrong, Lenin?", Edward asked him. 

He couldn't answer yet - suddenly, he was sobbing. And then, he heard steps entering the room, and there was Mom, back with a paramedic in tow... apparently she had chosen the moment he was beginning to make a tearful, sobbing mess of himself to come back.

"Son...?"

Lenin hastily wiped his tears before the people around him became too worried. "It's nothing..." He made a point to smile, to show that he really was fine - not that he was faking it... "I was just thinking how having friends, family - people to rely on is the best thing in the world!"

It probably sounded sappy, but it was true. And it made him incredibly happy that he’d come far enough to be able to appreciate it.

And then, to his surprise, Jackson walked all the way to his side and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Welcome to the world you deserve, Lenin. You'll get used to that."

Lenin's eyes widened the slightest bit. Jackson's smile was... incredibly caring. The others were all smiling at him, just as caring and understanding, and Lenin smiled even more back at all of them, unable to hide his happiness.

The future Jackson spoke of - the future he could finally see - awaited him. And he couldn’t wait to get there.

...................................................................................................................

After that, they were all ushered out of the bedroom, while the paramedic did a checkup on Lenin and his mother stayed with him. Time passed slowly, and Harry was already worried that the albino would have to be removed to the hospital because of some nasty after-effect from this... bizarre dream he’d been through.

Finally, the paramedic came out and, fortunately, declared Lenin was perfectly fine - he just had a slight fever, which probably would go away if he rested the day off, the woman said.

That was enough for the five of them to let out sighs of relief... but then the woman kept talking. She decided Lenin would be removed to the hospital - to be put under observation for a while, run an ‘electro’...‘shuffle’... whatever the test was called to check his brain activity, along with a few other routine tests.

And Harry felt a chill in his stomach. Sure, he was most definitely glad that Lenin didn’t seem to be seriously hurt or sick, But still... he was kinda afraid of how things would shake out for the rest of them - especially for himself, Antony and Leandro. When they all went outside, he saw there were some neighbors outside, looking at them and whispering among themselves... how long until the rumors reached the school, and their parents?

But then, Lenin turned around just a couple steps from the ambulance’s back door, and walked back to them.

“Lenin?”

“Just a moment”, he called back to his concerned mother. And then he stopped right in front of the five of them, their eyes focused on the three bullies.

“Listen here... don’t let anyone blame you guys for today”. The albino seemed to have fire in his eyes. “Not even the school staff or your parents. Have them call us at the hospital if you have to, I’ll tell them what really happened right away...”

Harry felt a wave of happiness wash over him, even though he wasn’t so sure his suggestion would be of much help. To think the albino would do this for them, after all the crap they’d pulled on him over the years...

They didn’t deserve this boy.

“You don’t have to worry”, Leandro cut him off, showing a lot more confidence than he’d demonstrated earlier. “We’ll find a way to sort this out.”

Antony smiled too. “You just rest up and leave this to us, okay? Look, your mom is waiting...”

Harry smiled at the albino as well - whether the twins really believed in their chances, or just said that to not worry him... those were both damn good reasons to see him off with a smile.

Lenin still seemed dissatisfied, but his mother was calling for him...

“We’re not done talking”, he declared suddenly, and Harry felt _pinned down_ by his eyes as he looked at all of them. “Let's meet again - all of us. And then I’ll tell you everything that happened to me today.” 

Harry’s heart leapt in his chest, and the others looked just as surprised. They had no idea what would happen after they talked to the principal, or how they would actually pull that off, but just by those words, Lenin had bound them all with something bigger than he could even imagine - and just like that, Harry had confidence that they really would make it happen.

And that gave him something wonderful - hope. A future to look out for.

“It... it’s a promise, then!” Harry barely managed to choke the words out.

“We’ll all be waiting for you", Edward assured the albino. "No matter what!"

_Yeah_ , Harry thought. _No matter what..._

Lenin seemed pleased enough at last, making his way back to the ambulance and laying down on the gurney (after some insistence from the paramedics and his mother when he blithely claimed he could go sitting just fine). Then his mother followed, and soon after the ambulance had started up, had its sirens turned back on, and had sped off into the distance...

That left him alone with the twins, Edward and Jackson.

“So... what do we do now?” Edward looked at the rest of them, confused.

“We all go back to the school and straight to the principal”, Jackson declared, his famous ‘game face’ back on. “That way, we get to talk to him in our own terms.”

“Oh, I see...” Edward tapped his chin in thought. “If we do that, he will be more willing to listen to us, and we’ll get to tell him what really happened...”

Jackson smiled at him. “That’s the idea.”

Harry's stomach churned. The prospect of facing the principal was scary, but it didn't seem like they had better options....

“Wait”, Antony yelped. “You’re planning to tell them the truth? Really?”

“Well...” Edward shrugged at the twin. “At least the realistic parts of it. They’d most likely doubt our story and think it’s a cover-up for something bad if we were to tell them about the dreams...”

Harry and the others all nodded to that. 

“But still... _the truth_?” Leandro too was grimacing. “Isn’t it better for us to...”

“Cook up a complete lie?” Jackson gave him a level look. “I doubt it. Covering up the part of the truth they wouldn’t believe anyway with lies will be hard enough, and one way or the other we’ll already be in trouble and people will make up rumors about us. If they find out we actually did lie about anything...” He shrugged sardonically. “We’ll only give those rumors more fuel, won’t we?”

Harry’s stomach dropped, and he saw the twins’ jerking back like they’d taken a hit to the face. This was Jackson when he cooked up a plan to press the team’s advantage when hey were ahead, or to turn the tables when they were behind. His ferocity and keenness in those moments were impressive... to the point of being a little bit terrifying.

And predictably, Antony and Leandro caved soon enough. “You’re right... that was just a bad idea. Never mind that...”

Jackson at least had the grace to not rub his righteousness in. But when he and Edward turned and walked away, the two of them seemed deflated still.

Harry took a look at the twins, and then looked back at the other two, going off on their own, apparently too engrossed on discussing the finer points of their plan to notice the three bullies hadn’t followed yet...

He didn’t know when he’d get to have a private talk with them when this whiole mess was over, so he decided to go out in a limb right then and there.

“Hey, guys...” The twins looked up at him. “I, um... thank you. I haven’t thanked you yet for calling me here... I wouldn’t have been here if you hadn’t. And I’m glad I’ve come here today.”

Some of their usual simple-minded confidence seemed to come back to them. Little smiles found their way to their lips. “Don’t mention it...”

There was something still nagging him, however. “How did you know to call me, though? I never told you I was on good terms with Lenin...”

“Well, it was mostly a coincidence.” Leandro’s smile grew wider. “We just saw you being all friendly with Lenin and the new student when we got to the cafeteria.”

Harry’s stomach dropped. He really hadn’t been careful at all, had he? 

“And you know what?” Antony cut off his train of thought. “We should be thanking you for that, too.”

Huh?

The confusion must have showed on Harry’s face, because Antony just kept talking. “When we saw you talking normally with Lenin, we knew that you were defying Isaac right away...” 

Dread and an unexpected thrill now clashed inside him. If those two had just ratted him out to Isaac, he'd have been completely and utterly screwed... but when Harry thought of it that way, _he did dare to defy Isaac right there_ , didn’t he?

“And we started wondering if we could do that too.” Antony looked up at the sky. “We were tired of our group, and we wondered if we could find someone outside it that we could rely on...”

“And lo and behold, we were desperate enough to try it with Lenin right away... but to be fair, he seemed reliable enough.” Leandro actually chuckled. “It was kinda funny, wasn’t it, Antony? At first he just told us off, but then, when we let slip to him that we were tired of Isaac, he suddenly called us back and asked why we were following Isaac’s orders at all...”

Antony was smiling along with his brother now. "He didn't make fun of us for cooking... but he did question us on being under Isaac's shadow. I don't know..." The twin shook his head. "He kinda made me feel like I could try to do things differently..."

"I felt the same way..." Leandro then turned back to Harry. "So, there it is - we were friends with Lenin, and knew you were too, and we just... thought you should know."

They all fell silent after that. Harry stared at the twins, his lips pursed. As it turned out, he had much more in common with those two than he'd initially thought. It made him regret not having gotten to know them better, even after years of knowing each other...

Well, he could start over now, couldn't he?

"We should talk to Isaac after all this." 

Antony and Leandro tensed up at his pronouncement. "I know... we were already planning to talk to Isaac today", Antony told him. "Tell him we're having a break and all..."

"No". Harry cut him off. "That's not what I meant. This is even more serious!" He raised his fists as he looked from one twin to another, his voice raising. "Look at Lenin! Look at what he's been through! Look at what just happened to him today! Can you guys say with a clear conscience that we haven't been part of his problems? How would you feel if he had actually died there?" Harry felt on fire, indignation at them - at himself - burning in his gut... 

But then he sighed, and his fists dropped back down. "I can't live like that anymore... I don't _want_ to live like that anymore."

For a moment, only the sound of the wind was heard, blowing through the grass and the roses of the village... Harry understood better than ever now, he wanted to be strong enough that he could be proud of himself, not someone who stepped on others to call himself ´strong´... 

He wanted to be strong, like Lenin was.

"We get it, Harry." And indeed, the look Antony gave him was an understanding one. "Let's tell Isaac we're done with all that crap."

"Yeah, let's do it..." Leandro tapped Harry's shoulder and looked from him to his sibling. " _Together_."

Harry let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. Just like he'd thought earlier, he'd turn on Isaac even alone if he had to, but having Antony and Leandro with him made things so much easier... and indeed, after this entire morning, capped off by this one talk, he felt a comradeship between them that he hadn't ever felt before...

And it felt _good_.

"Are you guys done yet?"

The three of them whipped their heads to look at Edward, who had called them from about a dozen feet away, while Jackson stood a few feet further behind him. "We still have to agree on how exactly we're going to talk to the principal, remember?"

Harry smiled at the two of them, as well. He could see they had given them some privacy, and he was grateful for it... it made him feel the same sense of camaraderie he was feeling with Antony and Leandro now. And that filled his heart with happiness. 

Then, when he looked at the twins again, he saw them also smiling brightly, and knew they were feeling the same way. 

"Yeah!"

"We're coming!"

_This_ , he thought, was more like the life he'd wanted. 

And no matter what Isaac said, _he was never letting go of it_.


	8. Consolation

"I'll be sending each of your parents a written warning for skipping school."

Edward was shocked. He couldn't stop staring at the principal, who bore an unrelenting gaze toward their group.

"As for Lenin, I must reiterate that you keep your discretion - for the sake of his medical psychological privacy, I am sure you're aware..."

He'd been expecting the worst when he'd walked into the principal's room with the others, but _this_...!

The adult lion then flashed them a weak smile. "I hope I can make up for... my earlier lapses of judgement today", he said, bitterness creasing his forehead as he eyed them all, and his gaze lingered slightly on the three bullies in particular.

He probably _did_ regret the way he’d jumped to conclusions then.

"I also hope I can gain your trust a bit now, so you do not have to resort such drastic measures in the future."

Edward exchanged puzzled looks with the other guys. Clearly none of them expected those words from the _principal_ of all people...

"You are dismissed now."

Hastily, the others got up from their seats and made to leave, probably fearing the principal would suddenly change his mind. They muttered to themselves how pleasantly surprised they were that they hadn't been expelled or the police hasn't been involved - prospects Edward himself had dreaded, especially when the principal heard that Lenin had been sent to the hospital... 

No... they skipped school together, could easily have been held accountable for Lenin’s _hospitalization_ (even if it was just for a check-up)... and in the end, they got off with just a warning!

"Sir..."

Unlike the others, Edward hadn’t moved from his seat. He could hear the silence falling behind him, and feel four pair of eyes pierce the back of his head for his impudence...

"Yes, Mr. Edward...?"

He paid them no mind this time, as much as he respected them all - something still seemed... off.

"I..." He paused for a second. "I won't lie, I thought this would have... _far worse consequences_..."

Someone behind him whispered his name through their teeth. The geek ignored them again.

He needed to understand this.

"So I must ask: why would you go this far... to _protect_ us?"

The silence lingered on for a few seconds. No one made a sound as the principal regarded him...

"Direct, are we, Mr. Edward?" The educator smiled at him once again. "Well... let's say I have been recently made aware that I should be more receptive to my students... and attentive to their thoughts and feelings in their matters as well." 

The adult gazed at the window absentmindedly. “And lately... I began to realize he was right.”

_He...?_

Edward's mind was still bursting with questions... but when faced with such a personal declaration, he felt it wasn’t his place to pry any further. 

"I... See..."

"I'm trusting you all to not break my trust as well, you know." The principal's gaze then hardened once again as he addressed the five of them.

There was no room to argue that. "Y-yes, sir!"

The adult's smile widened. "Very good. You should go, then - it’s almost time for afternoon class!"

Edward still had reservations about... the entire meeting really. But since the principal was far more understanding than he’d been expecting, he decided he should give him the benefit of doubt... at least for now.

The adult turned his back to them and made his way to a nearby shelf. Edward took the cue and left, the other guys already waiting outside...

................................................................................................

“I mean, I was as confused as you were, _but Edward, come on - that’s not the kind of thing you go asking the principal like that!_ ”

“I’m sorry.” Edward, however, rather than avoiding his gaze and acting guilty, met him eye to eye. “But I wanted to understand his true intentions. I don’t know yet how things work here in Samiga School, but makes no sense to me for a principal to take our side like that - _risking his job and credibility at that_ \- for _nothing_ ”, he said with a cold conviction Jackson wouldn’t have dreamed to see from the boy who had approached him almost in tears the day before.

Jackson opened his mouth... and then shut it again with a huff. “Yeah, I'll give you that much.”

The two of them fell silent. The three bullies walked a few feet behind, muttering things among themselves that the athlete couldn’t make out. Edward really was something else beneath all the awkwardness on the surface, he thought - Jackson was glad enough that he’d managed to get through and point a logical course of action to the principal when he was understandably freaking out at the thought of Lenin being in the hospital (and bless his mother for promptly picking up the call too)... but before that, Edward was the one looking all cool and calculating as he told the principal their “edited” story - more seamlessly than he and the others would have been able to.

They had worked well together - and now even in their arguments, Jackson felt a kind of rapport with the newcomer that only a certain another someone had made him feel...

“So... I take it I’m right to think that the principal wasn’t always like this, right?”

Jackson looked back and found the geek’s inquiring gaze on him once again. 

“Oh, no... he’s usually a lot more stern. Last year, I forgot to do my Math homework once, because I was _exhausted_ after playing on the quarterfinals... Never again, man.” The athlete shuddered - that one had been a scolding for the ages.

Edward gulped, and said nothing.

“So.“ Jackson pivoted back to the topic at hand. “Who do you think _'he'_ was...?”

“Hmm...” Edward straightened up, gazing firmly ahead. “I was wondering about that myself.”

It had to be someone important enough to make the principal mellow out somewhat. His concern for Lenin and the way he dealt with the five of them all looked very... _heartfelt_. More than it was fitting for the principal he knew.

Jackson wanted to analyze it more - hopefully Edward’s sharp wit would be able to help him. And as he scrutinized the geek’s face, he saw the geek wasn’t all just cold logic - a genuine sense of empathy guided his analytical process and transformed it. Like when he cheered up Jackson himself before, the smaller guy aimed to understand more than just the logical mind behind the principal’s actions.

The athlete grinned as he reminded himself to do the same. 

_"Louis", I think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship..._

................................................................................................

"Don't worry, guys! We'll catch you later!"

Parting with Edward and Jackson had been easy enough. They even had the perfect excuse of heading into their next class, so neither one suspected them much... and so, they parted with their new impromptu friends with smiles that, while sincere, disappeared the moment they had gone around a corner and out of sight.

Harry’s mind was focused on something else other than classes, or the discussion the other two were having as they left - which he would have been rather interested in joining in, befuddled as he’d been himself... but the moment he spotted that certain someone through a nearby window, roaming around outdoors... all other thoughts had dropped from his mind.

One look at the twins, whose gazes had followed his instantly, had told Harry that the three of them were thinking the same.

"So, how are we doing this...?" Leandro and Antony both stepped forward to his right, eyeing him with expectation. 

Harry clenched his fist, looking ahead down the corridor.

"I guess we can just go there and break a leg."

Those two must be as afraid as he was... but the only way to fix the past was manning up and telling Isaac what had to be said, wasn't it?

_It’s about time._

....................................................................................................

"You bunch are kidding me, right?"

Isaac blinked, again and again. Those three idiots... they actually looked serious about the nonsense that had come out of their mouths. They _really_ were thinking of...!

This could _not_ be happening to him.

“You’ll always be our friend, Isaac... but we’re done getting involved in fights and bullying anyone.” Antony looked anxious, yet as defiant as he’d never seen him before. And the other two were completely in line with his _bullshit_... 

Okay, then. Either they were pulling a prank on him, or they had all lost whatever passed for their minds all at the same time. Either way, it shouldn’t be too hard to turn their game around and put them back in their place, _right?_

“I see how it is, then...” He put on his best unflappable face, even as his blood started to boil. “So you’re going to start acting nice to everyone? Maybe suck up a little to them, to see if they accept you after you... ‘turned over a new leaf’?”

“T-that’s right, we are!”

Isaac’s eyes narrowed and he grinned. Leandro's voice had quavered. 

_There’s an opening._

“ _Oh, guys_... haven’t you learned _anything?_ ” Isaac slowly stalked over in their direction. “No one will _care_ about what you do to please them, or forgive what you did that they didn’t like. No one really cares about anyone else - they'll only use you to get what they want and make themselves _look good_.”

That was how life was - sad, but true, like that Metallica song. And that was why he had to hold on to what he _did_ have - his friends, his place in life.

And so, the shorter boy grabbed the offending twin by the shirt, and tugged it so that he was looking down at him. 

“You're willing to let yourselves be pushed around that much? Are you guys really that stupid?”

Isaac could feel Leandro shaking in his boots under his grip, his eyes looking terrified - and his grin widened into a sneer. 

That was good. Fear would _teach_ them, they had to remember their places...

_"STOP! LET GO OF HIM NOW!"_

And then, before Isaac could register it, he'd been pushed back.

Dazed for a second, he blinked as he steadied himself. Antony now stood in front of his twin, holding onto his still shaken brother protectively as he bared his teeth at him...

And in the next second, it clicked in his head that Antony had pushed him back. 

Isaac scowled at the twin. _**"What the hell are you thinking, you idiot?"**_

By his brother's proximity, Leandro seemed to be regaining his confidence. Harry, too, stepped closer to them, a determined look in his eyes. They actually had the nerve to talk back...

_**"You're the idiot if you think we'll let you treat us like crap any longer!"** _

Isaac saw red. He had wanted to reason with them... _but if they thought they were going to defy him like that, they had another think coming!_

It took less than a second - Isaac’s body sprung into action and he _pounced_.

......................................................

The fight that ensued quickly drew the attention of half the school, as everyone stopped to watch on from the classroom windows. Some students thought they saw a tooth flying off, and there seemed to be at least one broken arm. By the time the inspector and even a couple teachers had managed to break it up and drag everyone back inside, they were all covered in nasty bruises and _blood_ , some of which dropped onto the grass around them.

But amongst the onlookers, no one else was more shocked and distraught than two boys and a girl...

....................................................

“Mom...”

The lioness looked up from her bed, weary after a long day of terrifying experiences, hospital exams and the principal calling to confirm the other kids’ involvement with Lenin and herself in the events of the day.

“Yes, Lenin?”

Her son had a beautiful smile - one she hadn’t seen on his face in ages. “Today was so strange... but I think everything worked for the best.”

She nodded. “I think so too.”

Lenin looked out the window, the moonlight filtering in reflecting beautifully on him. “I also think... everything will change for the best from now on.” His smile became even wider. “I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will be like for once!”

Then, Lenin turned around, approached her and - to her shock - caught her in a hug. A heartfelt one, unlike the ones before that she _knew_ didn’t really have his heart in it.

Slowly, tentatively, the woman returned the gesture. It wasn’t easy for her, she knew... but maybe, after everything that had happened, she could hold on to hope herself.

The lioness smiled. Her son’s sudden, but very welcome change of heart made her think they could make it happen now.

.......................................................................................................

“We're going to tell _everything_."

Leandro and Harry looked on at their audience - their parents, Isaac's parents and the principal. It was early morning, and _everyone_ came to the principal's office to discuss their fight of the previous day and what would be done about it...

Well, almost everyone. Isaac had been left out as per the principal's decision - which surely had to be for the best. Leandro himself sure was thankful for not having to deal with the pressure of being anywhere near him after what happened. But the absence who weighed the most on his mind was Antony's - accompanied by their mother, hospitalized with a broken leg and a knocked tooth for taking the brunt of Isaac's fury in his stead. 

Two things hurt more than all the other injuries he'd sustained put together - failure to protect, and shame for letting things come to this in the first place.

The twin looked at Harry, who returned the look sympathetically. It was a small comfort to have this one remaining friend in this very difficult moment - to face their misdeeds of the past and push forward into a grim-looking future.

After the adults discussed among themselves, the principal turned to them - he was expectant, and it was partly due to their actions the day before that they were being given this little bit of trust.

"All right, we're listening!"

They wouldn't have a better opportunity than this to finish what they all had started.

Bracing himself, Leandro started talking.

...................................................................................................................

Isaac had always been strong.

He _had_ to be, if he was to carve out his place in the world. If he was weak, for even a _second_ , the world would take everything away from him and grind him to dust. 

He couldn’t rely on _anyone else_.

That was the only thing the young man had to thank his parents for. Rarely a moment to spare, between working and catering to Alice - _always Alice_. Isaac nonetheless learned quickly enough, seeing their poorly disguised weariness and indisposition, that their “love” for her was as false and bound to moral obligations than their “love” for him - her special needs simply forced them to be more attentive to her.

So when they decided to talk to him two days before, he sat through their display of tough “love”, claiming that his behavior at school was unacceptable, that those weren’t the values they’d _taught_ him, yadda yadda... 

He didn’t have to _really_ mind their sermon, though - he knew it was just yet another moral obligation to them.

“...and I don’t want to hear that you’ve been causing trouble at school again. _Are we clear?_ ”

And that was all there was to it - they just didn’t want to feel bad whenever someone who couldn’t accept how life worked whined about it and made Isaac look bad to delude themselves that the world was better than it really was...

_"I said: are we clear, Isaac?"_

Well then, they wouldn’t hear _anything_ , alright. He’d make _sure_ of it.

“Yes, sir.”

That life of make-believe his family lived wasn’t for Isaac - he’d only endure it for as long as he had to.

The next day, he had to bear with another uncalled for warning to "behave" from his angry parents, and couldn’t wait to get away from them and get back to the safe haven he’d made for himself - the school, where he could do as he pleased and his parents were none the wiser. 

Except this time, word got out, so he had to reunite with the guys, explain the situation and hope the idiots under his wing didn’t mess things up again, put a tighter rein on everyone... whatever it _took_! 

If only he’d known...

He should have noticed something was up when he found them unexpectedly absent from school. He should have noticed it when they came to him anyway at lunchtime. He should have _tried harder to persuade them_ when they started spouting nonsense...

But one act of defiance was all it took for him to lose his temper. And that was the beginning of the end.

If only he’d _known_...

One brutal scuffle later, Isaac was covered in bruises and blood with half the fingers on his left hand broken - and perhaps a rib or three. The pride for giving about as good as he got despite having fought one on three meant little when the greatest damage had been done - it quickly became the talk of the school, so _of course_ it came to the principal's knowledge, and from there it came to his parents’ notice, as well as to the other three’s parents’. 

He’d have tried to salvage the situation - talking with the others, _persuading them to come to their senses_ , trying to discredit what they said and paint it all as a huge misunderstanding... but he wasn’t given a chance to - as his former friends, their parents and the principal convened in the latter’s office this morning, he was left outside under the inspector’s supervision, hung out to dry while students and teachers spread their gossip all around him.

By the time he was summoned back to the office, the three traitors had told the adults _everything_ \- even the things no one else but them knew. The more the adults talked, the more his stomach dropped - those three didn’t jump their ship, _they sunk it and dragged him kicking and screaming to the bottom with them._

_If only he’d known..._

Just like that, it was all over. Now Isaac ambled through the school corridors, followed by the school inspector, trembling and white in the face as he went for his locker to take out his things. 

**_Expelled._ **

The word echoed in his otherwise empty mind. This was the last time he would walk those corridors - in only two days, he had lost _everything_. He was now at the mercy of his parents’ “righteousness” and “love” as they decided his fate from there. All the _respect_ he used to have had been stripped from him, and of course the peanut gallery came in droves to gawk...

“Hahaha! You got what was coming to you!”

“Serves him right... now things will finally become better around here, I’m sure!”

“Better stay away, what if he assaults us too like he did his ‘friends’?“ 

“I always knew he had to be _crazy._..”

As if he was the root of all evil and they were all so much better - the hypocrites!

Now, though, he didn’t have the energy - or the moral standing - to so much as talk back any longer. Like a robot, he slowly put his things away and hung his backpack lazily over his shoulder. Then, like a ghost, he ambled back to the school entrance where his parents and the principal awaited...

Isaac, who had always been strong, now felt empty. 

He didn’t even have the energy to scream or beat up the nearest student like he would before... even the mockery and laughter buzzing around him - _at his expense_ \- was tuned out by a ringing in his ears...

_It’s all over... Everything is... huh?_

That was when he saw it. A few meters from him, somewhere behind the crowd. 

Harry and Leandro, talking gingerly with someone who held out a hand to them. _A pale white hand._

_Lenin._

The two smiled at him as he put his hand on Harry’s arm and squeezed it, and the two smiled at him - _as if they all were old friends._

_Lenin! And those traitors! Smiling together!_

Suddenly, something clicked in his head. At the same time, something else shattered in there.

_**“Hey, boy!”** _

The inspector’s call went by completely ignored - Isaac was already several feet away, sprinting forward, his backpack tossed aside somewhere along the way, the crowd scrambling out of his way in panic. Not even the twinge of pain in his ribs as he breathed harder would stop him...

_It was all Lenin’s fault - how didn’t he think of it before?_

_**“YOU SON OF A FUCKING BITCH, I’LL KILL YOU!!!”** _

.........................................................................

Lenin only had a moment’s warning.

He’d been talking to Harry and Leandro one moment, and the next one, the three of them had whipped their heads as a sudden commotion announced the presence of Isaac, rocketing toward them with no signs of stopping.

_**“I’LL KILL YOU!!!”** _

In a split second, Harry and Leandro were scrambling to pull Lenin back and put themselves between Lenin and his bully - _their former leader._

But Lenin wasn't having none of that. 

Lenin leapt and threw all his weight toward them, pushing the two much larger guys aside by sheer force of will, and with a metallic thud, he'd knocked them into the locker.

He felt Isaac's arm whizz by just behind his back.

"Ow! Dammit, Lenin..."

Harry complained about his sore shoulder hitting a locker door, which Lenin neither regretted, as they'd all be far worse off had Isaac hit them, nor did he have the attention to spare for it - Isaac would get back up any moment.

They had to do _something_ about him, but what-

_**"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH..."** _

Lenin jumped in shock, covering his ears to muffle the intense agonizing scream... and then he realized that Isaac was still on the floor - writhing, clutching his side and screaming his lungs out... and then a moment later he was moaning in pain, his breath ragged as tears rolled down his eyes.

_**"Aaaaaaahhh... Ahh... Ugh..."** _

Stepping away, tugged back by his two new friends, Lenin could only stare in horror. He’d never seen Isaac like that before - he looked in too much pain to even speak!

_Could it be that... he broke something on the fall?_

_Like, a rib?_

Lenin covered his mouth as his stomach dropped and his blood ran cold. Leandro and Harry looked just as shocked - maybe guilty? - Isaac was pale in the face, curled up in a ball of pain and tears... the albino's head became suddenly heavier, and it took him a while to understand why.

A part of him - a sick, ugly part of him - was reveling on the signt of his enemy brought low - _hurt_. But another feeling, a gentle one, started dissipating the cloud fogging Lenin's mind. He took a deep breath, and slowly, the weight of morbid desire was lifted. 

And then Lenin understood - even though he'd prevailed over Iczog, there was a dark side of himself that would drag him right back to the bottom if he ever heeded its call again...

Looking back at Isaac, a couple teachers and his father had all come to the agonizing bully's aid, barking instructions at each other while the inspector shooed the other students away from the scene...

"Pathetic... he thinks we'll feel sorry for him after all he's done?"

"Oh dear... how the ‘mighty’ have fallen, am I right? Hahaha..."

All the others would show for the grievously hurt boy was apathy - the same darkness he‘d have to deal with inside him, now and at every moment - and Lenin felt a pang of disapproval. Isaac had done his share of condemnable things all those years and ultimately brought everything that had happened to him upon himself, but the others just didn't get how they were part of the problem either... they didn’t understand the mental sickness they cruelly indulged themselves in.

As everyone walked away on the inspector's orders, Lenin chanced one last look at Isaac, crumpled on the ground... and the pain he saw, conveyed by overflowing tears and scrunched face, made it clear. Isaac's pain, though different in form, was no different in origin from his own - they were both responsible for their own respective plights, more than anything or anyone else they'd blamed.

_Including each other._

When Isaac's tearful eyes met his own for the last time, Lenin had a compassionate but firm look on his face. 

The albino did not look away from Isaac, until the last second before he had to look back ahead. This could well be the last time they saw each other, and Lenin conveyed all the empathy he could - not to be _the_ better person, but _a_ better person.

All Lenin could do now was pray - that Isaac overcame his own demons and found _real_ happiness, without bringing pain to himself and those around him... like he himself had to.

.............................................................................

**All the gardens need care.**

..............................................................................

“ _Blimey_... I’m just glad you’re okay, Lenin.”

Jackson didn’t sound too happy to Edward, however. The three of them were hanging out at the cafeteria after school, and Lenin had told them what had transpired at lunch. If the geek was to guess, he’d say Jackson was just upset that he wasn’t there for Lenin when it all happened, even though he couldn’t possibly have predicted it while he was away holding a meeting with the basketball team anymore than those who were actually _there_.

(He did rush to check on Lenin as soon as he’d heard about it, though - which Edward found rather touching.)

Lenin also looked uneasy. “I _knew_ that things were going to change for the better now, but the way it’s been happening... how can I say, it feels like...”

“Too much, too fast?”, Edward offered, joining the conversation at last. Lenin was quick to nod in agreement.

“Not to say _intense._ ”

That, the geek could relate with - if it was himself missing one school day to come back to find the local main bully clique dismantled the way it had been, he’d be shocked too. Lenin (thankfully) didn’t get to see the actual _bloodshed_ , but he had to have seen the aftermath when Harry and Leandro came and told him what had happened, just before they left...

Edward had caught a glimpse of Harry and Leandro when they were going into the principal’s office with their parents in the morning, and there was _no way_ Lenin hadn’t seen all those bruises and bandages.

“I’m going to visit Antony and the others”, Lenin announced suddenly, as if in the same mental wavelength as Edward. “I think they could use some company in the hospital, or at home... and someone should bring them the school assignments while they’re suspended.”

Edward smiled. “Why don’t we all go together? That sounds like a good way to cheer them up to me! Plus, we could help them study...” 

Lenin looked away, suddenly embarrassed. “To be quite honest... I’d probably end up needing help more than helping with that.”

Oh. Edward should have thought that would be the case, considering...

Nonetheless, the geek’s smile didn’t falter. “I understand, Lenin. But I can help you too, it’s not an issue! Don’t worry, we’ll figure everything out together, okay?”

Thankfully, that seemed to be enough to cheer his albino friend back up, as he smiled back bashfully at him.

Jackson crossed his arms. “If you guys are going, I’m going with you”, he said curtly. “And I can help with the school subjects as well.”

“That would be really great!” Lenin now beamed with excitement, and Jackson seemed unable to keep himself from smiling back.

Edward sensed quite a bit of hidden intent behind Jackson’s decision - his feelings of guilt toward Lenin for his own past negligence and his distrust toward Harry, Antony and Leandro for their past deeds wouldn’t fully disappear over the course of just two days, the geek figured, but the jock seemed willing to make the effort on both fronts, so it was probably better to just let him sort it out in due time.

And that was how things were, Edward thought as he looked at his two friends cheerfully discuss their plans to visit their other three new friends. He recalled something he’d told Lenin at the end of his first day in Samiga School, and rectified it in his mind.

_Special things do take time to come by, but they also take effort and care..._

..............................................................................

**But if we are not prudent...**

..............................................................................

The sight of peasants and royalty happily communing together lingered with Dimitri as he made his way out of Nausea Fields, never to return.

He'd watched them for a while - from a safe distance, of course. They celebrated as if the pains of the waking world would never come back to haunt them again, forgetting all about true salvation thanks to their victory... and as the bearer of said salvation, he knew he wasn't welcome there even if they knew of his survival. 

Bearing uncomfortable truths had always been a big burden...

Now, though, the former Priest of Dreams himself questioned the truths he once held as absolute. Ever since Lenin had bested him for the first time, he returned to his master's side in the broken state he'd been left in. Incorporated into Master Iczog's very essence, he waited from within his shepherd, yearning - _praying_ \- for the boy to come face them for the last time, and thus confirm once and for all the _truth_.

Then, Lenin bested even his master, and Dimitri perished under the truth the boy asserted...

...until he woke up to find himself not only _alive_ , but somehow restored to his prior form as well.

The sun blazed overhead, and there were no clouds to be seen in the sky. Iczog's influence seemed to have vanished for good. Dimitri himself had been bested, and defeated... and _spared_. His former life, however, was forfeit, and with the salvation he once sought looking more and more questionable in retrospect, he now had no place or purpose - his powers and extensive knowledge over dreams spared him the risks of starving to death as he wandered the Realm, and yet were now devoid of a purpose greater than ensuring his own continued survival by any number of underhanded means.

_To live in such a pointless and undignified manner..._

Not for the first time, Dimitri considered escaping to the dream world by himself forever. But where before he'd stayed out of a sense of duty to bring everyone the same "salvation", now it looked like the only way out of his disgraceful existence.

If escaping wasn't true salvation... then perhaps true salvation was not meant for him, after all.

"Urgh..."

A blur of movement in the distance caught his eye.

The former priest rushed forward. A large bird-like silhouette came into view, along with the first dunes of the Desert a couple miles behind.

He knew it - it was Horace.

"Damn... it's so _unpleasantly_ hot..."

It made sense that the peacock survived if he himself did. Though Dimitri felt no need for friendships, Horace... always felt like he was in the same wavelength as him, and the two had become somewhat close... colleagues? _"Friends"_ didn't feel right to describe their past association... 

Out in the heat, the cold-aligned bird looked very uncomfortable - though apparently not in danger of life. His personality made him unpleasant to interact with, and his current predicament would only accentuate... Nonetheless, Dimitri’s heart picked up speed. They were in similar situations, were they not? Unapproachable beings, with their own views of the world that few understood, who were now left without a purpose... The sheep found himself running toward the peacock all of a sudden. 

Maybe if he and Horace joined forces, Dimitri could find something new to live for in the waking world...

...........................................................................................................................................................

Unbeknownst to either Dimitri or Horace, a lupine figure watched them from his concealed position. He'd have stepped in if either one attempted something cowardly against the Realm... or themselves. 

But the need for that disappeared when Dimitri found Horace on his own and decided to reconvene with him. The Mecha-Wolf observed as the two former enemies of the Realm reunited, threw a few barbs to each other for a while... and then begrudgingly agreed to journey together. Satisfied with the current state of affairs, he then left the two to decide their next steps on their own...

Zurergo‘s intervention had not been needed today, and he hoped it would never be - for their sake, or against them.

.......................................................................................................................................................

**...the most sensitive plants will suffer in the treatment.**

........................................................................................................................................................

"No, no, no, Lenin, _stop!_ "

The albino was startled, but Antony didn't relent, looking as serious as he could while sitting on a hospital bed with a plaster cast on his broken arm.

"But..."

The twin didn't let him continue. "Trust me, we've had a long time to think about it, before and after." He tapped his cast lightly for emphasis. "What happened that day wasn't your fault - we brought it on yourselves. We hoped Isaac would listen to us for once, but we were ready to do what it took to end those bad things we were doing - we did it for ourselves, first of all. It wasn't _pretty_ , and I wish there'd been a better way out for all of us... but we did it. We are _free_ , and it's all thanks to you, Lenin!"

Lenin pursed his lips, looking uneasy at the mention of his name. Antony gave him the most confident smile he could, missing tooth be damned.

"The only thing I regret is that we didn't do that on our own earlier - still, better late than never, and we wouldn't have had the courage to do it if it wasn't for you." Antony shrugged with his good shoulder, and managed an actual snicker this time. "So drop the long face, okay? I'll be out of here in no time and all, and Leandro and I will be sure to make you our l _ittle cooking guinea pig_ , you'll see..."

He actually got a snort out of Lenin, which was a good sign.

"Looking forward to it, _Master Chef_."

The mood lightened a lot more after that. The minutes flew by the two of them, and by the time Leandro had come on their father's behalf to announce visiting hours were over, they were both in high spirits as Lenin went back home for the day... 

And then, it was just Antony and Leandro in his room. Leandro too would have to leave soon, leaving him only with their father who would stay the night with him in their mother's place.

As his twin, the one who knew him best than anyone else, Antony didn't need Leandro to say anything to notice how he got whenever he was in his presence - no matter how his twin tried to act like his usual goofy self around him, he felt there was a bit of something forced to it now.

"Leandro, come here..."

Antony held out his good hand to his twin, who carefully approached. 

"You know, Leandro, I was just talking to Lenin about how I din't regret what we did that day with Isaac..." He put his hand on his brother's shoulder and squeezed gently. "And I want to tell you that it goes for you too."

Leandro made a face, but like with Lenin before, he didn't relent now. He _would_ talk to Leandro about this.

Antony was _done_ having regrets, and he didn't want any for his brother either.

.........................................................................................................................................................

**Besides, not everything that seems to us a strange creature...**

.........................................................................................................................................................

The Restlessness Mansion was in celebration. 

Not only had Iczog's influence been finally cleansed from the Realm, meaning the Mansion was safe from any further accidents, but Amir and Liane had also come back - just like their parting letter had foretold, and to the immense joy of Iz. For the third time in recent memory, the cook broke his usual unflappable façade and allowed himself to shed tears of joy and voice all his elation for his masters' safe return. 

And no sooner than they'd set foot on the mansion, they were already making plans to renovate it, so that very soon it would be able to properly house animals of all kinds and parts, just as it used to. Currently, they were discussing their plans to expand the Human Gallery over a balanced meal, with a good mix of fruits, vegetables and lean meat - Amir trying his best to avoid overeating, and Liane making her effort to eat more. It would take a while until they were eating just the right amount of food each, but it was a start - a sign that they were, indeed, finding themselves just like they had wanted. 

And that, along with everything else, was enough to put a smile on the beak of a certain crow, watching everyone from around the corner with a satisfied, _knowing_ air to him - as if he'd known things were going to improve before they did...

.........................................................................................................................................................

Magnolia was in shock.

Some time had passed since Lenin had brought clear rain back to the Woods. The isolation rule was called off, she’d been adjusting to her new role as the Matriarch, and Phuny... she knew the pain of his absence would never quite heal, but she made her peace with it as best she could...

And so, how surprised she was to see him standing on her doorstep now.

_Phuny was there._

Lenin boy was by his side - he brought her son back to her. Magnolia had to pinch herself to be convinced it wasn’t a wishful dream, and as she confirmed that she was, indeed, awake, Phuny let out one of his gems:

“Oh, no, Magnolia, there’s no escaping it. Your worst nightmare came back - _it’s your boy, the Patriarch!_ ”

For a fleeting moment, Magnolia saw a glimpse of her son as he had been before the Patriarch - jovial, fun-loving and a bit snarky. And yet, his words and expression now had this self-effacing edge from that horrific moment when he disappeared before her eyes, which she could no longer ignore - and neither could Lenin, judging by the worried look he gave to her son...

And sure enough, he quickly deflated, looking almost as skittish and frazzled as she had seen him them.

“Yeah... I’m back”, he added weakly.

Magnolia heard a sob - and only then she noticed herself crying, tears streaming down her face.

She reflexively raised a hand toward her son - she had intended to pull him into a hug, and tell him how much she’d missed him... but had to stop herself when she saw him flinch, eyes widening in fear.

And then, she understood - her son had been restored, but his heart wasn’t magically healed.

Tentatively, she brought her hand to his shoulder and caressed it, and smiled - demonstrating all the motherly love she had for him. Phuny flinched for a moment under her touch... but then, he slowly relaxed, his own eyes tearing up.

“Come in, son. You must be so tired... Why don’t we eat something? Then you can go to bed and rest a bit...”

The rest, they’d figure out later. Together.

.........................................................................................................................................................

**...is an enemy.**

.........................................................................................................................................................

Lenin had this one piece he'd composed once. He called it “Eye of the Storm”.

It came to him sometime after he started playing the piano - bit by bit, the chords formed in his mind over the months as he kept thinking of it, until he had something he could call a musical piece. Emotional and a bit melancholic, the albino would play it when he was alone, for his own ears only... it always brought him some comfort, even as it also pained his soul a bit everytime.

Now, however... there were beats. And other sounds he couldn't name.

Edward was the one creating them with a computer program on his father’s borrowed laptop, just like he told Lenin the other day. It was impressive - _touching_ , even - how the addition of different instruments could take the feeling in a melody and transform it into something completely different - the composition sounded much happier than Lenin’s own piece alone.

Speaking of which, he had to hand it to Jackson too - he really _did_ know how to play instruments. In only a couple attempts, to Lenin’s ever-increasing admiration of the school’s ace, his performance with a _triangle_ of all things fit seamlessly into the new song as if it was always meant to be played like that...

The albino decided he should discuss later with his two friends a new name for this new song - their song.

“Bravo!” Alice clapped her hands, prompting a round of applause from Harry and the twins who sat by her side. “The musical is going to be a success, I’m sure!”

“Alice...” Edward chimed in. “You know this one isn’t the official song for the musical, right?”

“Oh, silly, I know that!” She chuckled gently. “All I’m saying is that Lenin really has the skill for it! And you two could also do a great job there if you wanted to...”

Jackson and Edward both looked away, blushing.

Lenin stepped forward between them, frowning. “It’s a shame that you won’t be here anymore, Alice...”

Alice smiled sadly, and the bittersweet aura quickly stretched over everyone present. Isaac‘s parents decided to put him in a school in another city - which meant the whole family would have to move away.

“Yeah, it’s too bad... but at least I know the music class will be in capable hands!”

This time, Lenin was the one who blushed and looked away.

“Thank you, everyone”. The wheelchair-bound girl looked at the boys around them. “This was the best parting gift I’ve received!”

Jackson’s smile faltered. “I hope Isaac doesn’t make much trouble for you and your parents anymore...”

“Or anyone else, for that matter”, Harry added categorically.

Alice‘s face fell too. “Oh, I can‘t wait for him to just learn his lesson and grow up already. But he’s not doing so well...”

.............................................................................................................................

It had been the worst argument he’d ever had with his parents - Isaac had thought it couldn’t get worse, and how wrong he had been.

The once-strong boy now had his head propped on the desk with his two hands clutching it and tugging painfully at his hair, his breath as sharp as his barely healed ribcage would allow. His parents both sat across him at the table, having fallen blessedly silent after a harsh competition of throwing accusations.

Now he heard his parents hurriedly talk to each other, he wasnt making out the words anymore. He didn’t know if they were accusing each other now, if they were even considering what he had said, or if they were just waiting for him to look up so they could continue pushing their merciless discipline on him.

Isaac didn’t know, and he didn’t care. He just... _couldn’t_.

His former life was over, and his new one was hell on Earth. What would he give now, to just _disappear_?

..........................................................................................................................................

“You see...” Lenin tapped his chin. “I don’t think you should _force_ yourselves to forgive him, but... I do think that you’re the ones who can understand him the most - you were his friends after all... ”

Harry looked at Antony and Leandro, who both looked as uneasy as he felt. They hadn’t told anyone else up until the albino that moment, but they had decided to keep contacting Alice to check on Isaac. It felt right, after everything - despite all the crap they’d taken from him and the bad terms they’d parted in, Isaac had been their friend, and their partner in crime. It was only natural to feel _responsible_ , right?

And Isaac’s situation only seemed to get worse, according to her. Carted off to a military school, he was being demanded a level of discipline they couldn’t even imagine from parents and school alike, to the point where he had fits of anger to put the Isaac they knew to shame - one of them resulting in a suspension less than two months after enrolling. While a vindictive part of them screamed _“good riddance”_ , they all agreed that it could have oh-so-easily been any one or all of them in the same situation. 

They were at an impasse. And who better to ask for advice about someone they hated but wanted to forgive, than the one who had first forgiven _them_?

“You guys have to be prepared for it, it won’t be easy”, Lenin completed with a sad smile. “But if anyone can reach out to him, I don’t know anyone better than you three.”

So they had called their albino friend over to discuss it in the morning. Like Edward says, conversation was important for socialization - and they had a lot of bad blood to smooth over. Antony and Leandro had opened up to him about using food to redeem themselves with Lenin... so Harry thought it would be nice to kill two birds with one stone.

As it turned out, it had been a great idea - they all got to talk without concern at the twins’ backyard, and their tomato and cheese “brusque”... _toast thing_ was a very tasty accompaniment - if just a little bit overcooked. Lenin’s advice, on the other hand, was sound and felt on point, almost as if Lenin understood Isaac as much as they did...

Maybe, Harry concluded with a hint of guilt, because Lenin _knew_ what it felt like to hit rock bottom...

“Most people may not understand it well. My own feelings about Isaac are complicated to say the least... Still, I’m _proud_ of you guys for not just giving him up as a lost cause.”

Harry’s smile grew as he became that much more confident in what they were doing, just by Lenin’s words. The twins seemed encouraged as well. All things said, Harry felt like the three of them could have good ideas and do good things if they tried.

How ironic it was that they were proving Isaac wrong on what he’d always say about them to save him... and how _satisfying_ too.

..........................................................................................................................................

**Pondering is crucial.**

.................................................................................................................................................

Lenin’s life had been improving by leaps and bounds. He had _friends_ , his grades were steadily improving and passing the year at least with the bare minimum now felt like a strong possibility, and the bullying had all but stopped - oh, sometimes people still talked, made faces and turned up their nose at him, but that barely affected him now, compared to before.

Because Lenin was happier now. He felt more motivated to do the things he loved, and his appreciation of life and his own self grew with each passing day. Everything felt good, and right.

Nothing could have prepared him, however, for the day that Lenin’s mom waited for him with a crumpled letter in hand.

“Lenin... son... there is something I need to talk to you about.”

..............................................................................................................................................

Jackson didn’t like the silence in the air. Or the look in Lenin’s face.

They were sitting side by side at Lenin’s kitchen table now. Jackson had come to get him for their next basketball lesson - the albino had improved his game quite a bit over the weeks, and while he wasn’t becoming the school team’s next star anytime soon, he should be more than able to pass PE now. It had brought a smile to the team captain’s face, seeing some cheerleaders and other students visibly eating their words about Lenin just being a hopeless failure, and Jackson was very much confident that the PE teacher would be doing the same, come the end of the year.

Besides, hanging out with Lenin had been everything Jackson had imagined it would be, and more. 

No dealing with affected fandom, no pointless talking about who’s better _when everyone‘s supposed to be a freaking team_ , and no pressure to constantly outdo himself at academics or sports - Lenin would simply listen to the jock complain about all that, and then offer his own thoughts and experiences with those matters. With his own sharp, lighthearted brand of wisdom, the albino gently reminded him every time that their problems weren’t so different... and they weren't insurmountable either.

Lenin always knew how to make Jackson feel at ease. Which was why it pained him so much to see Lenin upset like that again.

Jackson arrived to find Lenin looking upset and asked about it. The albino showed him the letter and told him everything, and then everything about today’s training was forgotten. Even the sky seemed fit to rain cats and dogs over the village soon after the jock arrived, pushing it even further away from their minds...

“Yeah... I don’t even know how I’m _supposed_ to react.” Lenin shook his head sadly. “I guess I’m feeling all those things at the same time right now...”

He had tears on the corners of his eyes, and looked like he was choking on his words.

Jackson didn’t know yet what to say either.

“...I mean, I’ve made my peace with him leaving Mom all those years ago. I’d accepted that I’d probably never even get to _know_ him, I even thought I’d understood and _forgiven_ him...” The albino threw up his hands. “ _And now he decides to come back?_ ”

Jackson sighed. Lenin had been surprisingly descriptive of his feelings - among them, he’d mentioned upset for his father’s lifelong absence, shock that he was coming back on his own, concern about what he could possibly want from him and his mother... and a small, tentative hope Lenin had barely brought himself to admit.

“I’m _scared_ , Jackson. Scared of whatever may come of this.”

When Lenin said that, looking for a heartbreaking moment like his past self, lost and desperate... Jackson couldn’t bear it himself.

“Hey... Come here.” 

The jock reached out with an arm, and pulled Lenin into a hug, as much for the albino’s sake as his own. Lenin went willingly, wrapping his own arms behind the athlete’s back. 

“I can’t tell what’s going to happen. No one can...” Jackson rubbed his friend’s back soothingly. “But we’ll figure it out, okay? I know you can figure anything out when you put your mind into it... and you two are not alone in this. I’ve got your back, Edward’s got your back... I never thought I’d be saying this but _Harry, Antony and Leandro_ have also got your back...”

That had Lenin chuckling for a brief moment, and Jackson could feel the way his chest rumbled with it on his own. The jock smiled - laughing together felt good.

“So don’t worry about it, man. No matter what happens, we’ll deal with it together!”

He felt, more than heard, Lenin hum in agreement.

The rain kept pouring outside, and neither of them broke the embrace for a long time.

As long as Lenin was at peace, Jackson thought, so was he.

.................................................................................................................................................

“I’m sorry that I’m talking about _Lenin_ so much... I’m supposed to talk about myself in those sessions, aren’t I?”

Serena chuckled. “Oh, it’s quite all right. It’s good to hear that the boy is doing well, and he seems to have helped you understand some important things about yourself...”

The principal of Samiga School smiled weakly. “Yeah... I’d say he did.”

The educator remembered it to this day - that night when he called upon Lenin to discuss his school performance, ask about his life situation and how the boy felt about everything, and advise the boy as it was his job to do...

He’d never forget it.

_“ **A matter of will? WILL?!”** Lenin stomped around the room. “ **WHAT DO YOU EVEN KNOW ABOUT WILLPOWER, TEACHER?”**_

_“MR. LENIN, I WILL NOT ADMIT THAT YOU...”_

_“ **SHUT UP!”** To the principal’s utter shock, the albino boy took out his backpack and flung it right at the floor by the feet of his desk, where it landed with a sickening crunch. **“DON’T COME TALK TO ME ABOUT WILLPOWER, WHEN YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT’S LIKE...”**_

_The way Lenin went red in the face and eyes with the ugliest scowl he’d ever seen on him as he stomped around the room, ranting about the discrimination he received from everyone, from villagers to students to *teachers who really were supposed to know better*, the increasing demotivation he experienced with every passing day... and the horrific feelings threatening to overflow and consume the young boy’s heart._

_“ **WHEN YOU JUST KEEP GETTING OFF YOUR BED-”** The boy knocked his own chest with a closed fist. **“-WHEN NO ONE GIVES YOU A DAMN BREAK-”** Knock. **“-AND YOU JUST WANT TO DIE EVERY SECOND OF YOUR LIFE-”** Another knock. **“-YOU COME TALK TO ME ABOUT WILLPOWER!”**_

_The albino boy’s chest was as red as his tearful face now. He took two ragged breaths, before he whirled around, yanked the door open and stormed off, his backpack lying forgotten on the floor..._

And looking back now, the principal had to recognize that, rather than advising and disciplining and managing the situation, he had simply... fallen silent at the boy’s outburst. Because the more Lenin had lamented, the less the educator could deny that he was right.

He really knew nothing back then - even though he knew about Lenin’s entire situation, his heart hadn’t been in it like he‘d thought it was. It had been a heart-breaking experience... or perhaps, like Serena said, more like heart-opening.

Which was exactly why the principal had started consulting with her.

The psychologist sipped her camomile tea, smiling. “And how are you two now?”

The principal’s smile was happier this time. “I’m glad to say we’re... making up.”

“That’s nice!”

Sure it was. His relief had been immense when Lenin came to his office of his own accord weeks later, and rather than starting another fight, the student apologized for his inappropriate behavior that day. The educator... also apologized that his choice of words might not have been the best, but reiterated that he genuinely wished for Lenin’s well-being, and admitted he had much to learn still, despite being an adult. They ultimately agreed that they had been both right and wrong in some ways.

And, even more importantly, Lenin seemed in a much better place mentally.

“I’m worried, though...” The educator’s features hardened. “It came to my knowledge that Lenin’s father is coming back to town...”

Serena blinked. “Oh? And what’s the problem?”

His brow furrowed more. “I don’t _trust_ that man... not after the way he left his family behind. You don’t know what it was like when he came... and _left_...”

Having witnessed that only made his cross heavier to bear, as far as Lenin and his family were concerned.

Serena gave him a sweet smile. “Maybe not... but from what you’ve told me it’s been more than a decade. What he did certainly was far from right, but... people change. Maybe he changed for the better...”

“Or not.” The principal looked down. “Or maybe he changed for the worse.”

After a moment of silence, the principal looked up and was met with a worried look from the psychologist - which in a way was worse than ostensible disapproval.

He sighed. “ _Fine_... I’ll give him the benefit of doubt.”

Serena allowed herself a smile at that. “It’s the best thing to do, dear.”

They’d have to wait and see how that story would unfold... it would be a story for another day, and they all could only hope for the best.

..........................................................................................................................................

**Now, I think you are ready to go.**

..........................................................................................................................................

Time passed in a flash.

At music class, the Music Teacher had decided to make a play about Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”. After failing to raise the class’ spirits about it, he quickly added that it would be a “modern” retelling of it... and when _that_ had them _shuddering_ , he gave the students some creative control over the play’s production - _"A_ _s long as it doesn’t detract from the original play’s themes"_ , he emphasized. 

Lenin guessed that they were afraid it’d end up as some “boomer” production trying too hard to be “hip and cool” to the younger public otherwise. And honestly, they probably weren’t too wrong...

Soon enough they found out the Art Teacher would be joining the Music Teacher in overseeing the whole play - and of course, rumors about that spread like wildfire. Whose idea it came from to make The Tempest their play, whether the two were dating, who wore the pants in their relationship... Lenin, for his part, was just happy that they were hitting it off so well, regardless of whether they were going to be friends or a couple - and frankly, he’d always thought they could.

(His friends’ reactions, however, ranged between mild surprise, curiosity and shock, which was nothing if not amusing to see.)

With the production underway, the following three months were hectic for Lenin. Besides the flurry of activity at music class, including setting up the gym for the event, he had to study with Edward (and sometimes together with everyone else), and train with Jackson to catch up with PE as well... Lenin didn’t remember being so busy before in his life, and it was a wonder that he mostly managed to do all that and not lose track of the other little things in-between, like consulting with Serena, talking to Alice with everyone, and then take some time off to spend by himself, doing his own things.

But he didn’t remember being as happy as he had been either.

Lenin did have some hiccups along the way. He would have to attend summer school for English and French - “Only English and French”, Edward had reminded him - and then he had to _argue with the P.E. Teacher so he'd reconsider his grade_ when he wanted to fail him by a tenth of a point - which, as it turned out, had been only a “test of character”...

“For real?”

Lenin felt the teacher’s gaze pierce him. “Yes, Lenin. _‘For real’_. You’ve got what it takes to pass the class... and life. That drive to soldier on, come he’ll or high water, is what I wanted to see in you.”

Lenin was still blinking, confused and elated at the same time, when the teacher added smugly:

Don’t tell me you _really_ thought I’d fail a student trying their best for a single tenth of a point?”

“Uhh...” 

And that’s how it went. Much later, Lenin hadn’t decided whether he agreed with the teacher’s methods or not, but felt he could be on to something... 

In the end, the relief and sense of accomplishment that washed over him when he’d passed everything were overwhelming, and it was all the sweeter now that he could share the joy with his mother and all his friends.

And then, the day of the musical came.

The visual and sound effects were simple, as was the costuming - they used what they could in a village as small and secluded as Samiga, but everyone did the best job they could have. The actors did a great job, with some overperformers like those acting as Miranda, Prospero and Caliban - maybe they were a bit desperate to prove to everyone else that they weren’t all talk... or they simply were very talented and dedicated to what they were doing, who was Lenin to judge? 

(Plus, if he was totally honest, Lenin was rather partial to Caliban, if only because he related to him...)

The music class, providing the play’s soundtrack, did an impressive job - the singing and instrument playing was on point after all the exhaustive practice they’ve had, and Lenin had to pat himself in the back just for having been able to keep up during the play, as he had throughout the training. Still, it was a story dear to Lenin for everything it represented, even though he had had trouble reading the complete version, and he really wanted to do it justice - so he put everything he had into composing something together with the class that appealed to both classic tastes and modern sensibilities.

The resounding applause from the crowd at the end of the play was all the validation they all had gotten for all the hard work put in - and at least for Lenin, all that was needed.

“Oh, Lenin, I’m so proud of you...” Mom showered him with praise right in front of his friends like a good doting parent as they all went home for the day. It flustered him to be in the spotlight like that, but her support had been as essential as everyone else’s, so it wouldn’t hurt to let her reap the rewards now...

“Blimey, Lenin! I can play a lot of stuff, but I would never be able to compose and then play the piano to the level that you do!” Jackson walked by his side, followed by Edward on his other side with Harry, Antony and Leandro just a couple feet away.

“I didn’t compose everything _by myself_...” Lenin quirked an eyebrow and gave him a snarky look. “And you can strategize, lead and _play basketball_ to the level that you do, so I’d say you’re doing fine yourself...” After a second of deliberation, he added pointedly. “ _Champion!_ ”

The jock had the good grace to look away with a sheepish smile as the others snickered. Jackson had just brought the Red Roses yet another trophy, and to Lenin that was more worthy of praise than his musical endeavors.

“Tomorrow it will be even more crowded than today, I’m sure.” Edward approached from his other side, his mother having given him a break from the overt demonstrations of love and pride to make room for him. “It was a _blast_ , Lenin - I’m serious! Everyone will talk about it, and bring their friends... _the sky is the limit!_ ”

“Yeah...”

As if prompted by Edward’s words, Lenin’s gaze was drawn by the sky above. It looked beautiful, full of stars with a bright waxing moon. As his mother discussed with the twins something about a meal they’d prepared together to celebrate that night to one side, and Harry, Edward and Jackson bantered over something that seemed trivial on the other, Lenin had to pause and consider where they were walking by. The others knew about it

Amidst the happiness, some words he didn’t remember hearing but felt familiar echoed in his mind...

**“You turned away from your friends, remember? You had no one else.”**

**“I’m not the evil in your life. You are! YOU ARE!”**

Lenin felt a twinge of remorse in his heart. Maybe in some other life, he’d have found happiness faster. 

Maybe he’d have been braver, opened his heart sooner...

Done things right from the start...

But there was no use bemoaning the past. _Everyone makes mistakes..._

The secluded spot he used to come to, to access his own mental Realm, was just off to the side of the road. He'd told the others everything he'd been through there - they had been shocked, but they'd been there with him so they understood, and Lenin would be forever grateful that they did... but none of them would ever know what it was, and had been like.

The dark sphere visible only to his mind's eye beckoned him - it always would. Now, however, Lenin gave the empty area a quick, thankful parting smile, and walked away. He no longer needed it to get to the other side, and visit everyone over there. He could do it anywhere, anytime he wished.

The last thing he thought about before the mumbling of his friends around him whisked him back to reality was the field of white roses behind him - but of course, he didn’t even have to look back to know that it would always be there, a perennial reminder of toughness and beauty in the face of rejection.

And then, ahead of him there was the beaten path back home, lit by the moonlight that bathed the woods... Accompanied by his mother and friends, Lenin’s heart fluttered in his chest.

This was his future now. It was his story, he would write his own lines...

And he owed it to himself to write it as best he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap! It took me almost a full year with about 7 months after Chapter 7, but I finally finished this fic - and it was my first finished fic ever, haha! One day late, but I still consider finishing this fic a gift to Lenin - The Lion's 1st Anniversary and its announcement for release on Nintendo Switch!
> 
> I really hope I did Lenin's story justice with this humble wall of text - er, fic. And once more, I urge whoever has read this to go play the game - it's a beautiful experience with poignant life lessons that you won't regret, if you open your heart to it!


End file.
